Free Republic

A hero Royal Marine saved 130 soldiers from certain death when he rugby tackled a suicide attacker before he could detonate a huge motorcycle bomb. The 40-year-old Marine saw the Afghan insurgent reaching for a yellow detonator button on the bike and leapt into action to drag him away.He foiled a cunningly planned attack in which the same motorcycle had been checked by the same troops just hours earlier when its panniers had been packed with potatoes instead of explosives.The suicide bomb contained 70 kilograms of explosives and was so huge it would have destroyed everything within 180 metres...

A Royal Marine was killed today and another seriously wounded when a suicide bomber threw himself at a British patrol in southern Afghanistan. Two Afghan children were also killed in the attack.The attack came shortly before the Secretary-General of Nato issued a fresh appeal for more troops and investment to help calm the situation in Afghanistan where a spiral of violence, including near-daily suicide attacks, has killed around 3,000 people. Today's bombing took place in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province and the headquarters of the British mission to southern Afghanistan. Witnesses said a man threw himself amongst a...