It brings the death toll to 63 since the start of operations there in 2001.

All the British soldiers killed in com­bat in Afghanistan since Jan­uary have lost their lives in the increasingly dangerous Helmand region.

A soldier from 1st Bat­talion the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters was killed in a gun battle with Taliban forces in the lawless province on Saturday. The victim’s battalion was in a joint operation with US and Afghan troops to prevent a Taliban ambush.

He was destroying a damaged Army vehicle to stop it falling into enemy hands when he was hit.

He was taken to the military hospital in Camp Bastion but died from his wounds.

Only 24 hours later a soldier from 19 Regiment Royal Artillery was blown up and killed as he left a military base in Gereshk, a town towards the north of the province.

He and other British troops, who are training the Afghan National Army there, were fired on with rocket-propelled grenades and their vehicle was blown up. Four other soldiers were wounded.

Military commanders have des­cribed the fighting in Helmand as some of the most brutal that the British Army has been involved in since the Korean war.

In Iraq the number of British troops killed since the war broke out in 2003 is 156.