Two British marines killed in Afghanistan

KABUL - Two British special forces personnel have been killed after an attack on a night-time patrol in southern Afghanistan.

The deaths came after a rocket-propelled grenade attack on the patrol in the Sangin Valley part of Helmand province. The killings were the first to claim the lives of Special Forces personnel since 2003, when Corporal Ian Plank died in Iraq.

They occurred in one of the most violent areas of Afghanistan, where Western forces are engaged in a vicious war of attrition with a resurgent Taleban.

The deaths came during a sustained and intense firefight in which British troops had to call up artillery, Apache helicopter gunships and Harrier warplanes in support.

The lethal attack took place just 24 hours after the Defence Secretary had said the use of the vehicles in combat zones will be reviewed after repeated claims that they did not provide enough protection.

Air strikes during the battle are said to have led to the deaths of 12 Taleban fighters including a commander Maulvi Sudraddin.

The rapidly worsening security situation in Afghanistan - the British deaths were just one of a series of violent incidents --- led yesterday to US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice announcing that she will make an urgent visit to Kabul and neighbouring Pakistan whose officials have been accused by Afghan president Hamid Karzai of colluding with the Taleban.

News of the latest British casualties, in which a third serviceman was injured, came on charged a day for Britain's armed forces. Yesterday the funeral took place of Royal Marine Paul Collins, who died with four other service personnel when their Lynx helicopter wasbrought down in Iraq.

An inquest also began into the suspected suicide of Captain Ken Masters of the Royal Military Police, who was found hanged at his quarters in Basra.

Masters was the officer commanding the Special Investigations Branch, and was also involved with the prosecutions of British soldiers accused of mistreating civilians.

The cases led to bitter recriminations from the rank and file who say they are being made scapegoats after being sent off to fight a deeply unpopular war. On what was by coincidence UK National Veterans Day.

Des Browne, the new Defence Secretary, said to hundreds of former servicemen and women "It is with great sorrow that I begin this speech by confirming that two of our armed forces have been killed in Afghanistan… "

"We are here, of course, today to honour Veterans' Day and the events last night in Afghanistan serve as a powerful reminder of the highest price that many members of our armed services have paid across the year."

British commanders on the ground privately say they are unclear what their mission exactly entails. Earlier this month Captain Jim Philippson, of 7 Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery was killed after a firefight with Taleban fighters at Lashkar Gar, the capital of Helmand province.

Although the bulk of the British forces are based at Kandahar and Camp Bastion in Helmand, paratroopers from the 16 Air Assault Brigade maintain a forward operating base, called Robertson, in the Sangin corridor where US led Western faces are daily engagements with the Taleban and allied Islamist fighters.

The lethal attack on the special forces marines took place just 24 hours after the Defence Secretary had said the use of Landrovers in combat zones will be reviewed after repeated claims that they did not provide enough protection.

In another criticism of the inadequacy of equipment the Commons Public Accounts Committee accused the Ministry of Defence of trying to cut back on its runaway budget by downgrading kit.

Chairman Edward Leigh said "The department in 2005 cut the forecast costs of 19 projects ...mainly by reducing the weaponry on order or by being less demanding about specifications of kit."

Despite this, said the report "The MoD is still unable consistently manage individual defence projects so that our servicemen and women have the new equipment they need, when they need it and to cost."

- INDEPENDENT