2 British soldiers killed in southern Afghanistan

Kabul: A roadside bomb and a rocket-propelled grenade in southern Afghanistan killed two British soldiers, while gunmen in the east abducted 16 mine-clearing personnel working for the United Nations, officials said on Sunday.

The attacks that killed the British troops in Helmand province's Gereshk district came as thousands of US Marines pour into the Taliban's southern heartland, in the biggest US military offensive operation in Afghanistan since the toppling of the militants in 2001.

It wasn't clear if the British casualties were involved in the Marine operation taking place in the same province.

Britain's Ministry of Defense said both attacks took place near Gereshk in Helmand province on Saturday. Earlier the Nato-led force said the two had died in a single incident. It was not immediately clear what caused the discrepancy in the accounts.

Taliban militants frequently use roadside bombs in their fight against Afghan and foreign forces in the country.

Responding to the deteriorating security situation, President Barack Obama's administration has ordered 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan and expects the total number of US forces there to reach 68,000 by year's end.

That is double the number of troops in Afghanistan in 2008 but still half as many as are now in Iraq.