British soldier killed in Afghanistan

A British soldier has been killed in Helmand province of Afghanistan, as the deadliest year of the war for foreign troops winds down.

The soldier, who was from the 23 Pioneer Regiment, Royal Logistic Corps, was killed near Lashkar Gah on Tuesday by an improvised explosive device (IED), the Associated Press reported.

He was a bomb disposal expert working for the Counter-IED Task Force and was killed as he was clearing a road.

The British Defense Ministry has not released the soldier’s name yet.

The latest incident raises the death toll for British troops deployed in Afghanistan to 348 since the beginning of the war in 2001.

Over 700 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan in 2010, which eclipses the previous record of 521 in 2009.

The most intense of fighting of the nine-year war has occurred in the Taliban heartland in Helmand and Kandahar provinces.

The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979 and Soviet troops withdrew from the country in February 1989, after a little less than nine years and two months of war.

The United States and some of its allies invaded Afghanistan in October 2001. The US-led troops have now been fighting in Afghanistan longer than the Soviet occupation and war.