Corporal Kumar Purja Pun, aged 30, from 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles and Sergeant Ben Ross aged 34, of 173 Provost Company, 3rd Regiment, Royal Military Police, were killed in Afghanistan. The two Service personnel were killed by a suicide bomber during a patrol in Gereshk, Helmand province, in the afternoon of Thursday 7 May 2009. The men had dismounted from their Snatch Vixen Land Rover when they were approached by the bomber on a motorbike, who then immediately detonated his device. 21 Afghan civilians were also killed and 3 other soldiers and 30 Afghans injured.