Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, 39, Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards is the highest ranking Brit army officer to be killed since the Falklands War.
He is the most senior Brit to be killed in Afghanistan since operations began in October 2001. Only six Brit Commanding Officers have died on operations in command of their units since 1948.
Ironically he was killed by a roadside bomb and one of the other six Brit commanders to be killed was killed at Narrow Water; where the IRA used a roadside bomb and a secondary booby trap. In that instance the dead Brit commander was Lt. Colonel David Blair.
Thorneloe was killed with another Brit in Helmand and this is an example of the price they pay to secure the opium crop.



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