Two British servicemen have been killed while patrolling Nato's main airbase in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said yesterday. The pair, members of the RAF Regiment, died when their vehicle hit a device near Kandahar airfield. Two other British servicemen were wounded in the blast but were said not to have life-threatening injuries. All next of kin have been informed, an MoD spokesman said.The men were travelling in a Land Rover Wolf, a military version of the Defender widely used by British forces for patrols but not designed to withstand attacks other than from light small arms.
The four RAF Regiment troops were taking part in a routine patrol to the west of Kandahar airfield when their vehicle was hit by the device at 6.48pm local time on Sunday. They were treated at the scene before being taken to the field hospital inside the base. "Sadly, despite the best efforts of the medical team, two of the servicemen died as a result of their wounds," the MoD said.
Brigadier General Carlos Branco, spokesman of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force, said: "Our most sincere thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the soldiers who died in this tragic incident and with those of the wounded soldiers as well."
The deaths take the number of British military personnel killed in Afghanistan since the campaign against the Taliban began in 2001 to 93.
Two weeks ago two Royal Marines from 40 Commando patrolling in a lightly armoured Land Rover were killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan. The vehicle, with stripped-down sides and a machine gun, hit a roadside bomb three miles south of Kajaki, the site of an important dam in northern Helmand province.
British patrols in Afghanistan are vulnerable to unexploded mines. Nato troops are also increasingly likely to be targeted by improvised explosive devices as the Taliban resort to "asymmetric" tactics instead of conventional - and invariably unsuccessful - attacks with light weapons and from exposed positions.