Soldier killed, four wounded by Taliban mortar

A British soldier was killed and four others wounded in Afghanistan on Friday night in heavy fighting. The death was the third this week by British forces in the Middle East. Two other deaths have been reported.

On Friday night, British troops in Garmsir in the Helmand province were attacked by Taliban using mortars and light arms. Five British soldiers were hit in a mortar blast. One from the 1st Battalion the Grenadier Guards was killed. Three seriously wounded soldiers were taken to Camp Bastion for treatment and another suffered minor injuries.

L/Cpl George Davey, of the 1st Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment, died last Sunday at the Sangin base in Helmand province. Relatives said it appeared his rifle fired into his stomach while he was cleaning the weapon. An investigation has begun.

Colleagues said he was devoted to his wife, Joanna, and their young daughters, Millie, two, and Morgan, one. Cpl Davey will be given a military funeral at the church in Beccles, Suffolk, where he married after joining up, in 2004.

Cpl Davey had recently been praised for his fearlessness under intense fire at close quarters in the Sangin Valley. His commanding officer, Lt-Col Stuart Carver, said: "Cpl Davey was a popular NCO who, in true Viking style, always put his men's interests before his own."

In Iraq on Monday, Corporal Jeremy Brookes, 28, died of wounds after insurgents attacked his armoured vehicle during a routine escort mission in Basra. Cpl Brookes, of the 4th Battalion The Rifles, was hit by small-arms fire. He had enlisted in 2001.

His commanding officer, Lt-Col Patrick Sanders, called him a "warm, wickedly funny and generous man". He said: "I never saw him admit defeat in anything and his determination, vigour and sheer zest for life was a personal inspiration."

The total of British troops killed in Afghanistan is 56 since 2001, and in Iraq it is 149 since 2003.