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London: Four British soldiers have been killed in a roadside explosion in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said yesterday in a statement. The deaths brought to 106 the number of British soldiers who have died in Afghanistan since 2001.
It said one of the four, an intelligence officer, was believed to be a woman, the first British female soldier to have been killed in action in Afghanistan.
"I would like to express my deepest condolences to the families of the four brave British soldiers who have lost their lives in Afghanistan and will be deeply mourned," Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in a statement.
"They were in the most dangerous of jobs in the most difficult of circumstances."
The fatalities occurred on Tuesday afternoon when a military vehicle was hit by an explosion while taking part in an operation east of Lashkar Gah in Helmand province, the MoD said.
Three soldiers were killed in the explosion and two wounded. One of the injured died later at Britain's main base at Camp Bastion, in Helmand.
Taliban militants later claimed responsibility for the attack.
"We blew up a Nato vehicle in Khokaba village near Lashkar Gah yesterday. Several soldiers were killed," Yousuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, said by telephone from an unknown location.
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