Armed Forces: Third British Soldier is Killed in Afghanistan in a Week

A British soldier has been killed in southern Afghanistan, the third to be shot by Taliban fighters within a week, the Ministry of defense said yesterday.

The death of the 17th British forces member to be killed there since the beginning of last month, and the 114th since military operations against the Taliban started in 2001, came as the defence secretary, Des Browne, holds a meeting in London today to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.

The meeting will consider how more helicopters could be deployed in support of British troops operating in Helmand province, defence officials told the Guardian. Military commanders have complained about the shortage of helicopters and the strain being put on pilots.

Helicopters are used to carry wounded soldiers to the British military medical centre at Camp Bastion. They also ferry supplies and transport troops quickly and - compared with vehicles - relatively safely. Britain may borrow helicopters from other countries, and hire commercial ones belonging to private companies, government sources said.

The soldier killed on Tuesday was from the 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment. The MoD said a routine patrol reported a casualty from an engagement with "enemy forces" who was seriously wounded by a blast. The injured soldier was airlifted from the scene to Camp Bastion, but died of his injuries in flight.

Lt Col David Reynolds, a British military spokesman there, 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 upsurge in deadly attacks against British soldiers can be explained by the summer being the "fighting season". More fighters - and money to pay them - is available now that the opium poppy harvest was coming to an end, defence officials said.

British troops have also been engaged in dangerous operations seeking out the Taliban but also reaching out to the local population in "hearts and minds" campaigns.

Despite the killing by British forces recently of a number of commanders, the Taliban appear to have regrouped.

Though they have resorted more in the past few months to planting roadside bombs and more suicide bombers have crossed the border from Pakistan, the Taliban "have not entirely left behind old tactics", a defence source said, referring to ambushes and open gunfights.

The number of killings of British troops in southern Afghanistan so far this summer compares with last year when 28 were killed between the months of May and September. Twenty-three have been killed there since May this year.