By MATTHEW HICKLEY

Last updated at 00:42 16 November 2007

An Army officer has become the 255th serviceman to die in Afghanistan or Iraq - equalling the toll of the Falklands War.

Captain John McDermid was killed by a roadside bombing as he led a patrol of Afghan troops in the lawless Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan.

The 43-year-old father of three, who was serving with the 2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment, was killed on Wednesday near the spot where another British soldier died recently.

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He had volunteered for service in Afghanistan and is the 84th British soldier to die there since 2001.

Captain McDermid, of the Royal Highland Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, is one of the most experienced servicemen to die in Iraq or Afghanistan. He had served 21 years as a soldier and three as an officer.

Last night his wife Gill, a policewoman, and their children were being comforted. In a statement, his family said: "John was such an important part of their lives and his death has left a void that can never be filled. Everyone who knew John knew how loving, dedicated, strong, hilarious and truly wonderful he was.

"Although very much a family man, John's sense of duty and responsibility were never overlooked."

Lieutenant Colonel Paul Harkness, Commanding Officer of the Royal Highland Fusiliers, said: 'He loved the Army and everything that it represented. It came as no surprise to those who knew him that he had volunteered to go to Afghanistan, as soldiering was in his blood.'

Captain McDermid, originally from Glasgow, had been training and mentoring Afghan officers. He died shortly before 11am as a joint force of British troops and members of the fledgling Afghan National Army were patrolling just south of Sangin town centre, when Taliban insurgents detonated an IED - an improvised explosive device. The infantryman, who arrived in Afghanistan a few weeks ago, was declared dead at the scene.

IEDs are accounting for an increasing proportion of UK fatalities in Afghanistan, as Taliban fighters adopt tactics used by counterparts in Iraq.

Last night, British forces at Kandahar Air Base gathered for a repatriation ceremony as the body of 22-year-old Lance Corporal Jake Alderton, who died last week close to the scene of Wednesday's attack, was put on an RAF aircraft for the journey to the UK. He was serving with 20 Field Squadron, 36 Engineer Regiment.

Intense fighting continued in the south of Helmand Province yesterday, where coalition forces fought around the strategically vital town of Garmsir, which controls Taliban supply routes from Pakistan in the south.

• Attacks against British and Iraqi forces have dropped by 90 per cent in southern Iraq since UK troops withdrew from the main city of Basra, the commander of British forces there has revealed.

The 5,000 troops moved to an airport on the city's edge in September, resulting in a "dramatic drop in attacks," Major General Graham Binns said.

• The Taliban gave a chilling example of their brutality yesterday. A gang of armed men dragged a 16-year-old boy from his school and shot him dead just because he had been teaching his friends English.

Gun-toting men stormed the school in the Sayed Karam district of Paktia province in south-east Afghanistan, grabbed the student and dragged him outside.

The local police chief said: 'Taliban militants took the boy out and killed him outside the school just because he was teaching English to his classmates'.

This is the first time police have admitted such an attack, although militants have previously targeted teachers, threatening and killing scores to try to scare them away from working in government-run schools and especially to try to stop them teaching girls - which the militants consider un-Islamic.