LONDON (AFP) — The defence secretary said Wednesday that there was "gloom and worry" about the number of troops being killed in Afghanistan, after a seventh soldier died within a week.
Bob Ainsworth said, however, that despite the losses, troops were making solid progress in fighting Taliban rebels.
"There is, of course, gloom and worry back here in London with the numbers of people that we've lost. If people weren't (worrying), there would be something seriously wrong with them," he told BBC radio.
"But when you go out to Afghanistan, as I did last weekend, there is a very real sense of momentum."
Ainsworth spoke as the seventh death of a soldier in seven days was announced by the defence ministry.
A soldier from the Light Dragoons was killed Tuesday in an explosion near Gereshk in the troubled southern Helmand Province whilst on the "Panther's Claw" offensive against Taliban rebels, the ministry said.
The death brings to 176 the total number of British service personnel killed in Afghanistan since operations began in 2001, when US-led forces ousted the Taliban after the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.
Ainsworth said he had "no doubt whatsoever" that if foreign troops were not battling the Taliban in Helmand then "that would lead to a threat to our country."
At a speech later to Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs think-tank, the defence secretary said the country had to prepare for further troop losses.
"The situation in Afghanistan is serious -- and not yet decided. The way forward is hard and dangerous. More lives will be lost and our resolve will be tested," he said.
"No single or simple solution will work. Success will be achieved incrementally. Step by step and over time, the Afghans themselves will take full responsibility for their own security and their own governance.
"If we are to succeed we will need both the courage and the patience to see it through. There is no defined end date -- only an end state."
Britain has around 8,300 troops in Afghanistan, largely battling Taliban insurgents in Helmand.
Panther's Claw is a major airborne assault launched more than two weeks ago against a Taliban stronghold near Gereshk, in central Helmand.
Among the soldiers killed so far in the assault was the highest-ranking soldier to die in operations since the 1982 Falklands War with Argentina, Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, commanding officer of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards.
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