Driven to their deaths

By Christopher Booker

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When Cpl Mark Wright of 3 Para was killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday,attempting to rescue six comrades who had been badly injured when their patrolvehicle was hit by a mine, this brought to 35 the number of our Armed Forces killed since their new deployment in Helmand.

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The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been at pains to conceal the vehicle's identity, but the evidence suggests that yet again it was a Snatch Land Rover. When Canadian and German patrols were also hit by explosive devices, theiroccupants escaped largely unscathed because their vehicles, an RG-31 and a Dingo, are designed to be "mine protected".

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This underlined the MoD's scarcely believable folly in sending our troops into action in Afghanistan and Iraq inunprotected vehicles, with the wholly predictable result that more than 30 have now died.

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The MoD seeks to reassure us that it will soon be sending 100 Pinzgauer patrolvehicles to Afghanistan, costing £487,000 each. What they do not admit is thatthese "coffins on wheels", as they are known, offer less mine protection thanthe £60,000 Land Rovers.

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Meanwhile the RG-31s used by our allies, costing just£320,000, have saved scores of lives. Not the least forgivable aspect is how the MoD uses spin and deceit to conceal its incompetence.