A British soldier has been shot dead in Afghanistan, making the 100th British military death there in 2009.
A soldier from the 1st Battalion the Royal Anglian Regiment became the latest casualty on 7 December.
This year has been the bloodiest for British forces since the Falklands War in the early 1980s.
About three-quarters of the British casualties have been caused by makeshift explosive devices - the Taliban's weapon of choice.
But individual incidents, such as the killing of five soldiers by a rogue Afghan policeman in November, or the eight soldiers killed in one 24-hour period in Helmand province in July, have had a real impact on the public debate in Britain over whether troops should stay in Afghanistan, the BBC reports.
Operation Panther's Claw claimed 10 lives, as British forces drove the Taliban out of key territory in Helmand, the head of the Afghan presidential election.
Meanwhile, the United States Defence Department has announced the deployment of the first wave of extra troops being sent to Afghanistan.
US President Barack Obama announced last week that 30,000 extra troops would be sent.
The Pentagon on Monday announced that members of a 1,500-strong contingent of US Marines will begin arriving in southern Afghanistan next week.
The marines are mainly expected to be sent to southern Afghanistan, where fighting has been the heaviest, but the Pentagon did not say where the initial forces were headed.
