KABUL, Aug 17 (Prensa Latina) The death of three British soldiers in the southern Helmand province raised the death toll of those troops to 204 on Monday, after their joint invasion with the United States to Afghanistan on October 7, 2001.
Those fatal casualties were caused by a dynamite blast against an armored vehicle that was patrolling near the city of Sangin, confirmed the NATO-led International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) command.
The Defense Ministry has previously announced in London the symbolic threshold of 200 British deaths had been exceeded in Afghanistan, with another blast on August 13, an event that shook the British public opinion.
Since early July, 31 British soldiers have died (13 in August), and those casualties have been attributed to a full-scale operation developed by over 700 special troops in Helmand’s districts, aimed at trying to make viable the people’s vote in the presidential elections scheduled for Thursday.
With its 9,150-member expeditionary contingent, Great Britain is the country, after the United States that is contributing more soldiers to Afghanistan occupation through the ISAF.
According to a poll published on Monday by Sky News television station, 82 percent of the British said the government should give more support to the posted troops in Afghanistan, while 12 percent said it is doing enough.
Of the 1,127 people polled, 57 percent said the troops should not be fighting in Afghanistan, against 13 percent that recognized that their reason to be there was very clear.
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