The third British soldier this week has been killed in southern Afghanistan.

The soldier from the Parachute Regiment was killed by an improvised bomb while on foot patrol near Sangin in Helmand province yesterday afternoon, the Ministry of Defence said. His family have been informed.The death takes to 106 the number of British service personnel deaths in Afghanistan this year. There have been 243 British troops killed in Afghanistan since the invasion in late 2001.Two soldiers were killed in separate incidents involving friendly fire this week. Lance Corporal Michael David Pritchard, 22, of 4th Regiment Royal Military (Sorry [ Click here to register ]) Police, was killed in Sangin on Sunday. Another soldier from 3rd Battalion the Rifles, died yesterday from wounds sustained in a gun battle near Sangin in Helmand province on Monday. He has yet to be named.The MoD said military police were investigating friendly fire as a possible cause of both deaths but it would not release any more information until the conclusion of inquests.Colonel Richard Kemp, a former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, said friendly fire incidents took place "very frequently indeed" in the chaos of war.He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The situation perhaps they [troops] face in Afghanistan, they are fighting in places like Sangin and other towns and villages where there are very tightly packed compounds, rat-run alleyways, high mud walls, and enemy appearing very, very briefly at short range – it's kill or be killed."You open fire rapidly and sometimes, tragically, you open fire on your own people."Kemp said he believed the latest incident came after a "sustained and prolonged" gunfight that resulted in warplanes being called in. "Sometimes when air support is delivered very, very closely against the enemy, when friendly forces and enemy forces are close together, that of course can sometimes result in accidents." Apologies if a repost , Rest in peace, thoughts and prayers with the family and friends at this time of year.

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