A THIRD member of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters has been killed in Afghanistan, less than a month after the first.

The soldier, who had not been named at the time of going to press, but is not believed to have been from the Worcestershire area, was killed by Taliban rebels in southern Afghanistan on Saturday morning, the Ministry of Defence said.

He had been on an operation with US and Afghan troops in the north of the lawless Helmand Province.

The coalition forces engaged a large group of Taliban fighters near the village of Qaleh-e-Gaz, south west of the town of Sangin.

The Woofers soldier was injured while attempting to destroy a damaged coalition forces vehicle to deny it to the enemy.

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

The news comes less than a month after the deaths of Woofers Lance Corporal Paul Sandford, who was the first member of the regiment to be killed in Afghanistan, and Drummer Thomas Wright, the second.

Twenty-three-year old Mr Sandford, who was from London and had family in Nottinghamshire, was shot during an operation to clear a Taliban compound in the Upper Gereshk Valley in Helmand on Thursday, June 7.

Mr Wright, 26, from Ripley, Derbeyshire, was killed when his armoured "Snatch" Land Rover was caught in an explosion roughly 6km outside of Lashkar Gah in Helmand province on Sunday, June 24.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair had paid tribute to the courage of the Woofers in the House of Commons on the day of Mr Sandford's death.

The latest Woofer soldier's death now brings the toll of British military fatalities in Afghanistan since the start of operations in November 2001 to 62.

Of these, 39 were killed in action or died as a result of injuries sustained in action, while 23 are known to have died either as a result of illness, non-combat injuries or accidents.