Britain honors war dead as Afghan toll rises

November 09, 2009|Associated Press

LONDON - Queen Elizabeth II led Britain’s annual ceremony for the country’s war dead yesterday, honoring them with a moment of silence as the military reported that more than 200 British soldiers have been killed in combat in Afghanistan.

As Big Ben chimed 11 a.m., the queen joined thousands of troops, veterans, and civilians in the traditional two-minute silence on Remembrance Sunday beside London’s major war memorial, the Cenotaph.

The remembrance service is held every year on the nearest Sunday to the anniversary of the end of World War I at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1918, and now pays tribute to the dead in all conflicts.

The Ministry of Defense said yesterday that two more British soldiers had joined the ranks of the honored.

A soldier from the Second Battalion of The Rifles Regiment was killed in an explosion Saturday near Sangin in central Helmand Province. Another soldier from the Fourth Battalion of the Rifles died yesterday morning after being injured in an explosion near Sangin, the ministry said.

The latest deaths bring the total number of British forces who have died in Afghanistan since 2001 to 232, among them 201 soldiers killed in combat.

This year’s ceremony was particularly poignant because the country’s three last known British veterans of World War I - Bill Stone, Henry Allingham, and Harry Patch - died this year.

Britain is the second-largest contributor to NATO forces in Afghanistan behind the United States, deploying about 9,000 troops with 500 reinforcements on the way.