British soldier killed in Afghanistan

A British soldier from 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment has been killed in fighting in Helmand, Afghanistan.

The Ministry of Defence said the soldier was taking part in an operation against the Taliban in the Upper Sangin Valley when he was fatally wounded.

A MoD spokesman said next of kin have been informed and have asked for a 24hour period of grace before further details are released.

The death takes to 107 the number of British service personnel who have lost their lives since the start of operations in Afghanistan in November 2001.

Four soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb tore through their vehicle last Tuesday, including Corporal Sarah Bryant, 26, of the Intelligence Corps, the first British woman to die on active service in Afghanistan.

The latest death came as the head of the armed forces warned that building up Afghanistan from its present "medieval status" will take decades.

The Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, said that while the military would need to be in the country for "some years", the civilian reconstruction effort will take much longer.

In a speech at Westminster, he emphasised that the key to long-term success in the country was establishing effective civilian governance.

"This is a gradual process," he said.

"This is not something that could be done in one, two or three years because we are talking about a country that is essentially medieval, that has very little in the way of infrastructure, very little in the way of human resource, that has an endemic culture of corruption."

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