Europe

Brown apologises for late Afghanistan condolence letter

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-12-04 10:35

LONDON: Prime Minister Gordon Brown apologised on Thursday for delays in sending letters of condolence to families of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

"I can only apologise to those families and I want to send my heartfelt condolences to them," he said. "I understand their grief and their sadness at a time when they have lost so much," he said.

Brown was speaking after the father of a soldier killed in 2007 said he had only just received a letter from the prime minister.

"I thought it was a bit late," Ian Sadler told BBC television. "It's the second anniversary tomorrow ... Jack was killed on Dec 4, 2007."

Brown has made a point of writing personally to the relatives of every soldier killed on operations and said that where a letter was not sent it was an "unacceptable error".

Brown's spokesman said the prime minister had ordered an urgent review of internal procedures at Downing Street after Sadler complained he had yet to receive a letter of condolence.

An initial investigation of files for 2007 had confirmed that Sadler was correct and that two other families had also been missed. Brown has now written to all three families.

Investigations are continuing into the paperwork for the past two years.

"To the best of our knowledge, all letters have been written and have been, or are in the process of being, despatched," the spokesman said.

Last month, Brown apologised to the mother of a soldier killed in Afghanistan after she took offence at the poor handwriting in his letter of condolence and claimed he had misspelled her son's surname.

A total of 236 British military personnel have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001.