A roadside bomb killing one of the most senior British army officers in Afghanistan has dealt a huge personal blow to the forces stationed in the troubled country.
The British Ministry of Defense announced that lethal incident happened when the bomb struck the commander’s Viking armored tracked vehicle in Helmand province.
The Viking, which has proved vulnerable to Taliban roadside bombs, was blown up about five miles north of Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital, according to Times Online.
Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, 40, who died alongside another British soldier, Trooper Joshua Hammond, 19, became the highest-ranking officer to die in combat since the Falkland Islands war with Argentina in 1982.
The deaths were confirmed on the day thousands of American soldiers in Afghanistan launched the biggest offensive since U.S. President Barack Obama assumed office in January.
Only about three British officers of Thorneloe’s rank are typically deployed in Afghanistan at any one time, a defence ministry spokesman said.
The last British officer of a similar rank to die in combat was Wing Commander John Coxen, killed in a helicopter crash in Basra, southern Iraq, in May 2006, the spokesman said.
At least 171 members of the British military have died since the start of US-led military operations in Afghanistan in 2001, according to an official figure.
