The milestone of 100 British Service personnel killed by enemy action in Afghanistan was passed yesterday when two Royal Marines died after coming under fire while on foot patrol in Helmand province.

The deaths of the Marines from 42 Commando brought to 101 the number of soldiers, Marines and other personnel killed as a result of hostile action. Their names had not been released last night.

Another 27 have died from noncombat injuries, including vehicle accidents. In Iraq 176 personnel have died, 136 as a result of hostile action.

Eight soldiers and Marines have been killed in Afghanistan this month, five of them from 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines, which took over the security responsibility for Helmand from 16 Air Assault Brigade in October.

The two Marines from 42 Commando were killed during sustained enemy fire as they were patrolling northwest of Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of Helmand. Commander Paula Rowe, a spokeswoman for Britain’s Task Force Helmand, said: “The loss of these two Royal Marines has come as a bitter and tragic blow to everyone.”

A suicide car bomb exploded close to the US Embassy in Kabul yesterday, killing at least four people as a United Nations Security Council delegation visited the Afghan capital.

Reports suggested that the suicide bomber crashed into a civilian vehicle while attempting to attack a Western military convoy and that the bomb detonated prematurely. An official from the Afghan Health Ministry, Abdullah Fahim, said that at least 18 civilians were injured.

The bomb exploded around 60 metres from the entrance to the US Embassy, which was closed for the Thanksgiving Day holiday. The Taleban claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Afghan capital has been in a heightened state of alert for the past two days because of the visit of the UN Security Council delegation. Security sources reported overnight that at least one rocket fell on the city.

There has been a sharp deterioration in security inside the Afghan capital in recent months, including at least three kidnappings of Westerners. Insurgents yesterday released a video of a French aid worker kidnapped on November 3, pleading for his release. Dany Egreteau, who works for an education charity, was seen in chains with two rifles pointing at his head.

Since his kidnapping, a French nongovernmental organisation, Aide Médi-cale Internationale, has become the first significant Western aid group to pull its foreign staff out of the country.

The Australian Government reported the death yesterday of a member of its SAS in a roadside bomb attack in the province of Uruzgan. Two other soldiers from the 1,000-strong Australian military contingent were killed when a device detonated during an operation against the Taleban.

Despite the mounting violence, the delegation from the UN Security Council in Kabul reported yesterday that there were reasons for being “cautiously optimistic”. Giulio Terzi, the Italian Ambassador, told reporters that a reshuffle of the Afghan Cabinet that had elevated reformers, as well as the improving ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan and the drop in opium production, provided grounds for hope.

But at a meeting with the UN delegation on Wednesday, President Karzai was strident in his criticism of the Western military.

“We haven’t accepted the international community so that our lives would get worse,” he said. “We accepted them so that our lives would get better. We can accept some destruction - even some civilian casualties - if we have hope for the future of security and peace . . . but this fighting can’t be the only way for ever.”

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