A BRITISH soldier killed in an explosion in Afghanistan was named yesterday as Lance-Corporal Nicky Mason.
The 26-year-old, of 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment, died on a routine patrol near Kajaki in Helmand province on Saturday. He was the second soldier from the regiment to die in Afghanistan in 48 hours.
his commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colo
nel Joe O'Sullivan, said L-Cpl Mason, from Essex, had been part of the high-profile operation to move a turbine up to the Kajaki Dam, to provide electricity for the rest of Helmand.
He said: "The hidden story of the Kajaki Dam is the company that patrols north and south of it daily. Those who celebrate the operation to move the turbine to Kajaki should now reflect on the steadfast courage of those who were there beforehand and who still remain, and on Nicky Mason who has given his life there."
• THREE RAF servicemen were killed when an enemy rocket exploded in their accommodation huts in Iraq, an inquest heard yesterday.
A computerised defence system managed to identify the incoming 240mm round but failed to divert its path sufficiently, the hearing in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, was told. The round landed in the middle of accommodation blocks in the UK base at Basra airport.
Matthew Caulwell, 22, of Birmingham, Peter McFerran, 24, of Connah's Quay, Flintshire, and Christopher Dunsmore, 29, of Leicester, died. The coroner recorded verdicts of unlawful killing.
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