A British soldier has been killed in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence in London announced Saturday. The soldier from the Queen's Gurkha Engineers, who was serving with 21 Engineer Regiment, becomes the 331st British soldier to die in operations in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion in 2001.
He was killed on Friday by small arms fire in the Nad-e Ali district of Helmand province, where the majority of Britain's 9,500 troops in Afghanistan are based, the ministry said. British troops are part of a 150,000-strong international force battling Taliban militants in Afghanistan.