Troop deaths spiral in Afghanistan as debate rages

By Paul Tait

KABUL (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed a British soldier in southern Afghanistan, the military said on Friday, as defence officials in London said they may need to deploy even more troops in the fight against the Taliban.

July has already reached record monthly casualty levels for foreign troops in the eight-year-old war, with U.S. Marines and British soldiers launching major operations in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold in the south.

Civilians are also suffering more in an escalating fight. Nine members of the same family were killed by a roadside bomb in Kandahar, the Taliban's birthplace in the south.

With Washington identifying the fight against the Taliban as its major military priority, the U.S. and British operations are the first major offensives under U.S. President Barack Obama's new regional strategy to defeat the Islamist insurgents.

The death of the British soldier on Thursday near Gereshk, the main industrial city in Helmand, took the toll for foreign troops in Afghanistan in July to at least 47, the highest monthly total of the war since the Taliban was toppled in 2001.

The previous monthly highs of 46 were set in June and August of 2008.

The soaring death tolls have sparked fierce political debate in Britain over whether its troops are adequately equipped, whether it has enough soldiers on the ground and whether they should even be there at all.

Britain has boosted its troop levels by 700 to about 9,000 this year, the extra complement sent specifically to help secure an August 20 election, Afghanistan's second presidential vote in its short history as a democracy.