Bomb disposal expert killed in Taliban firefight

Hospital death: Stephen Gilbert was wounded in Afghanistan
12 April 2012

A British Army bomb disposal expert has been killed in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said today.

The soldier, from 101 Engineer Regiment, died in a firefight with insurgents in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand Province yesterday.

He was serving as part of the counter-improvised explosive device task force. His family have been informed. Lieutenant Colonel James Carr-Smith, spokesman for Task Force Helmand, said: "He died seeking to rid Helmand of IEDs so that local Afghans could move freely throughout the province."

The latest death took the number of British troops who have died in the Afghan campaign to 309. Tributes were paid today to another British soldier who died in hospital at the weekend after being injured in Afghanistan. Bombardier Stephen Gilbert, 36, from 4th Regiment Royal Artillery, was badly wounded in an explosion in Nahr-e Saraj on June 10.

He was brought back to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, where he died on Saturday. Bdr Gilbert, known as "Gilly", lived in Topcliffe, North Yorkshire. He was married with two sons.

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