Another British serviceman has been killed in Afghanistan.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed that a member of the Royal Marines had been killed during operations in the south of the strife-torn country.

The Royal Marine was the fourth British serviceman to die in the past five days in Afganistan.

On Friday, Sergeant Barry Keen, 34, from 245 Signal Squadron, 14 Signals Regiment, Royal Corps of Signals, was fatally wounded in a rocket attack in southern Afghanistan.

Sgt Keen, from Rowlands Gill, Gateshead, was killed in an indirect fire attack on a compound near the village of Mirmandab.

He had been reorganising with his team in a secured area after acting in support of the Afghan National Army when a single mortar round landed next to him.

He was serving as a communications specialist attached to Battle Group (South), which is deployed on Operation Chakush, fighting the Taliban in the Upper Geresk Valley, Helmand Province.

The day before Sgt Keen's death, Guardsman David Atherton, 25, from the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, was killed during fierce fighting as part of Operation Chakush.

On Wednesday, Lance Corporal Alex Hawkins, from the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, died in an explosion while travelling in a Vector patrol vehicle on the outskirts of Sangin.

The number of British military fatalities in the country since the start of operations in November 2001 now stands at 68.