Eight British troops die in Afghan war in 24 hours

By Tim Castle and Matt Falloon

LONDON/L'AQUILA, Italy (Reuters) - Britain said on Friday eight soldiers had been killed in Afghanistan, its worst death toll in a 24-hour period, and Prime Minister Gordon Brown said troops faced a "very hard summer" battling insurgents.

Five troops on foot patrol were killed by two blasts, the highest death toll in a single attack.

Britain has now lost 184 soldiers in Afghanistan since it joined the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, more than the 179 deaths during its campaign in Iraq that began in 2003.

Fifteen soldiers, including four officers, have been killed in the past 10 days in the fight against Taliban insurgents.

The heavy losses threaten to damage British public support for the deployment in Afghanistan and further hurt Brown's already poor opinion poll ratings ahead of a British parliamentary election due by mid-2010.

Most newspapers led their early Saturday editions with reports of the losses, with the right-leaning Daily Mail urging Brown to "back our troops -- or pull them out."

"We cannot go on as we are, watching the bravest and best of their generation dying at the rate of more than one a day ... for an ill-defined cause and with inadequate backup," it said.

The Times said the deaths recalled the worst moments of the 1982 Falklands conflict, when British troops retook the South Atlantic islands after an invasion by Argentine forces.

"In the last ten days, the British public has had to become accustomed to the daily ritual of grim ... announcements," said the newspaper.

Britain's Chief of Defense Staff Jock Stirrup said British troops were winning in their mission to improve security in Afghanistan ahead of a presidential election.

"But it's going to take time and alas it does involve casualties ... Our people out there know what they are there to do and they know they are succeeding in it," he said.

Brown said there was no question of pulling soldiers out of Afghanistan until the international community had finished its mission there and quelled the threat from the Taliban.

"This is a very hard summer -- it's not over," Brown told reporters at the G8 summit in Italy.

"But it's vital that the international community sees through its commitments," he said.

"Our resolve to complete the work that we have started in Afghanistan is undiminished. We must help deliver a free and fair presidential election in Afghanistan."