Courtesy of SkyNews:
Two British soldiers have been killed in a suspected suicide bombing in Afghanistan.
The troops, from the 3rd Battalion, The Rifles, were on patrol with the Afghan National Army in Helmand Province, the Ministry of Defence said.
The patrol near Sangin had been designed to reassure local Afghans.
The bomber was not believed to be a member of the Afghan Army and next of kin have been informed of the two soldiers' deaths.
Two Afghan troops were also killed in the explosion.
An MoD statement said: "Two British soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, The Rifles were killed as a result of a suspected suicide improvised explosive device.
"It is with great sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm that these two soldiers died near Sangin, in Afghanistan's Helmand Province, on the afternoon of 15 December.
"They were on foot at the time of the explosion, in which sadly two Afghan National Army soldiers were also killed."
A spokesman for Task Force Helmand, Lieutenant Colonel David Wakefield, said: "It is with deep sadness I must inform you that two British soldiers were killed near Sangin in northern Helmand Province.
"They were both from 3rd Battalion, The Rifles. They will be sorely missed by us, their comrades, but their sacrifice will not be forgotten."
The latest deaths bring the total number of British service personnel who have died since the start of operations in Afghanistan in 2001 to 239.
There have been 102 deaths this year alone.
News of the latest killings came after the first of 500 extra British troops to be deployed to Afghanistan arrived in the country.