The CNN Wire

4 UK soldiers killed in Afghanistan
Posted: 03:35 AM ET

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) — Four British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, the defense ministry said Wednesday.

An explosion hit the soldiers’ vehicles about 3:40 p.m. Tuesday as they took part in an operation east of Lashkar Gah, a city in southern Afghanistan, the British Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

The blast killed three soldiers immediately while a fourth died later, the ministry said. One of the victims served in the Intelligence Corps, the ministry said.

A fifth soldier was wounded and is in stable condition.

The explosion occurred a day after Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that Britain would send more troops to Afghanistan. British troops there primarily serve in the southern province of Helmand, where allied forces are battling a resurgent Taliban. 

Defence Secretary Des Browne said Britain would increase its troop presence in Afghanistan from 7,800 to 8,030 by next spring.

While that “does not in proportionate terms represent a very significant increase,” he said, it does bring British troop numbers in Afghanistan “to the highest level.”