"Afghan bomb disposal expert killed" (Latest from the Cambridge News) - Total British deaths now 309

We can't spare any of them, least of all a bomb disposal expert.

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http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Home/Afghan-bomb-disposal-expert-killed-47527.xnf?BodyFormat=2

"A British Army bomb disposal expert has been killed in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed.

The soldier, from 101 Engineer Regiment (Explosive Ordnance Disposal), died in a firefight with insurgents in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand Province on Sunday.

He was serving as part of the counter-Improvised Explosive Device (IED) task force. His family have been told.

Lieutenant Colonel James Carr-Smith, spokesman for Task Force Helmand, said: "The soldier was part of an EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) team that was extracting from an incident when he was killed by small arms fire.

"He died seeking to rid Helmand of IEDs such that local Afghans could move freely throughout the province. He will be greatly missed and his actions will not be forgotten. We will remember him."

The latest death took the number of British troops who have died in the Afghan campaign to 309.

Meanwhile, the wife of a British soldier who died in hospital after being injured in Afghanistan said she had lost her "true soul mate".

Bombardier Stephen Gilbert, 36, from 4th Regiment Royal Artillery, was badly wounded in an explosion in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand Province on June 10.

He was brought back to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, where he died on Saturday with his wife Jackie by his side."