LONDON: The war in Afghanistan claimed its second journalist in 10 days this weekend, officials said today, when an explosion killed a British reporter out on patrol with US Marines.

Rupert Hamer of the Sunday Mirror newspaper was killed by an improvised explosive device as he accompanied a US Marine Corps patrol near Nawa, southern Afghanistan, on Saturday, the Ministry of Defence in London said.

A photographer for the tabloid, Philip Coburn, was injured. Officials said he was “in a serious but stable condition”. A Marine and an Afghan soldier were also killed. The Foreign Office said it thought Hamer, defence correspondent of the Sunday Mirror, was the first British journalist to die in Afghanistan.

“My heartfelt thoughts and sympathies are with the families, friends and colleagues of Rupert and Philip,” Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in a statement released by his office.

“Their courage, skill and dedication to reporting

from the frontline was incredibly important and ensured that the world could see and read about our heroic troops,” he said.

Canadian reporter Michelle Lang of the Calgary Herald newspaper was killed in Kandahar province on December 30 alongside four soldiers when a roadside bomb exploded beneath their armoured vehicle.