The soldiers were on patrol in the restive southern province of Helmand, where most British troops are based, when the blast hit their heavily-armoured and tank-tracked Warrior fighting vehicle Tuesday, the British defence ministry said.
Early reports listed the soldiers as "missing, believed killed", but military sources said later the men were dead and that it had taken time to recover the vehicle.
"We were on a joint patrol mission in Nahre Saraj district near Lashkar Gah city last night when a British armoured vehicle ahead of us hit a landmine, killing six soldiers," an Afghan army corps commander in Helmand, Sayed Malook, told AFP.
Taliban insurgents said in a statement on their website that the vehicle -- described as an American "tank" -- had been blown apart by an improvised explosive device, or homemade bomb, but stopped short of claiming responsibility.
Before the explosion, 398 British forces personnel had died in Afghanistan since the start of operations in October 2001, when a US-led invasion overthrew the Taliban regime over its harbouring of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
It is the biggest British loss of life in a single incident in Afghanistan since a Nimrod aircraft crashed in 2006 after leaking fuel made contact with a hot air pipe, killing 14 crew.
Britain has around 9,500 troops with the NATO force of some 130,000 in Afghanistan, but Prime Minister David Cameron announced in July that this would be reduced by 500 to around 9,000 this year.
Along with the rest of the NATO coalition, Britain is due to end combat operations in Afghanistan by late 2014, transferring responsibility for security to Afghan forces. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
