Soldier wounded in Afghanistan dies in UK

A soldier seriously wounded by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan last month has died of his injuries at Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham. The soldier, whose name is not being released at the request of his family, was from the 1st Battalion the Royal Anglian Regiment, and was serving in Helmand province as part of the Household Cavalry Regiment Battle Group. The Ministry of Defence said he was injured on 21 February while on patrol as part of an operation to drive insurgents away from Musa Qala town and district in northern Helmand. He was flown back to Britain, and treated in the Defence Medicine centre at Selly Oak, but died last night from his injuries. "He was one of us, one of our own, who fell doing his duty: we will remember him," Lieutenant Colonel David Wakefield, spokesman for Task Force Helmand, said. It was announced last week that British troops are to hand over control of Musa Qala to other International Security Assistance Force troops in the next few weeks. The soldier's death brings to 273 the number of British forces or MoD civilians who have died while serving in Afghanistan since October 2001: 240 as a result of enemy action, and 33 from illness or non-combat injuries.