British soldier killed, 4 injured in Afghanistan

Updated: Drummer Thomas Wright, aged 21. See above.

It is with profound sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm the death of a soldier from the 1st Battalion The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters in southern Afghanistan today, Sunday 24 June 2007.

The soldier was killed at around 09.58 hrs local time roughly six kilometres outside of Lashkar Gah in Helmand province. The soldier’s armoured ‘Snatch’ land rover was escorting a military team surveying the site for a new road project linking several Afghan villages in the Babaji area when it was caught in an explosion.

Four other soldiers were also injured in the explosion. All of the casualties were flown to the ISAF hospital at Camp Bastion where doctors pronounced one dead on arrival. The four remaining casualties are receiving medical treatment for their injuries. All of their next of kin have now been informed.

Shortly after the explosion a man who failed to stop at the security cordon set up around the site was shot and killed, and a second man was wounded, after ignoring repeated calls to stop. The two men drove towards the cordon ignoring the soldiers’ warnings, including shouts, coloured flares and aimed warning shots.

The soldiers were forced to open fire only after they had exhausted all reasonable measures to ensure their safety. A Shooting Incident Review is now underway.

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