British soldier killed in Afghanistan

A British soldier has been killed in an explosion in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence has said.

From the 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment, he was seriously injured by a blast in in Helmand Province and died on Tuesday.

The MoD said next of kin have been informed.

Lieutenant Colonel David Reynolds, spokesman for Task Force Helmand, said: "Everyone in Task Force Helmand is affected by the death of a soldier, and the thoughts and sympathies of us all are with the family at this most difficult time."

The latest fatality takes the number of British service personnel who have lost their lives in the country since the start of operations in November 2001 to 114.

On Monday, Sergeant Jonathan Mathews, 35, from Edinburgh, was killed while on foot patrol in the same region when his party came under Taliban fire.

Sgt Mathews - from The Highlanders, 4th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, attached to 1st Battalion the Royal Irish Regiment - was evacuated by helicopter to the medical facility at Camp Bastion but died of a single gunshot wound.

On the same day Sgt Mathews was killed, the bodies of Lance Corporal Kenneth Rowe, 24, from Newcastle, and Corporal Jason Barnes, 25, from Exeter, Devon, were flown into RAF Lyneham, Wiltshire.

L/Cpl Rowe was a British Army dog handler who died with his animal during a firefight with the Taliban last Thursday.

He and Sasha, a specialist search dog, were attached to the 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment. He was due to leave frontline duties the day before he died.

Cpl Barnes of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers attached to 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, died in a suspected roadside bomb last Tuesday.

He was driving an ambulance at the time of his death.

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