2 UK soldiers killed in Afghanistan

A UK Royal Marine and a woman soldier have died from injuries they received while on patrol in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed on Thursday. The Royal Marine, from 40 Commando and the soldier, from 3 Medical Regiment, were on patrol in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province when they were killed yesterday (Wednesday), the MoD said. The pair are thought to have been killed by insurgents, though the BBC said an Afghan source claimed the deaths were from a "green on blue" attack - where coalition troops are killed by their Afghan allies. A source said the Taliban had issued a statement in Afghanistan suggesting the incident was a green on blue attack. But the source said the details of the incident were still unclear because the people who knew what happened were not in a "state" to write down witness statements or explain what they saw. The source said the Marine and soldier appeared to have been killed by gunshot wounds by insurgents, but the details had not yet been confirmed. Their deaths take the total number of UK service members to have died since operations in Afghanistan began in October 2001 to 435. There are around 9,500 UK soldiers serving in Afghanistan, the majority in the tense southern Helmand province, a hotbed of the insurgency.