ASHLEY David Smith’s death in a Helmand province explosion came as the United Nations revealed violence in Afghanistan had soared in the first four months of this year.

A quarterly report to the UN Security Council revealed roadside bomb attacks had risen by 94 per cent compared to the same period in 2009 and the country was seeing three suicide bombings every week.

It said the rise in violence was “attributable to an increase in military operations in the southern region during the first quarter of 2010” and that Afghanistan’s overall security situation “has not improved” since the UN’s previous report in March.

Assassinations were also recorded as being up by 45 per cent and the findings also showed Taliban forces had become more successful in targeting and killing Afghan officials, although it added that more than 2,500 political candidates, including 400 women, had been registered to stand in the country’s September elections.

“The shift to more complex suicide attacks demonstrates a growing capability of the local terrorist networks linked to al-Qaeda,” said the report, submitted by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Trooper Smith’s death follows those of Lance Bombardier Matthew Hatton, 23, from Haxby, York, who was killed in the Sangin area of Helmand last August, and Malton-born Serjeant Phillip Scott, 30, who died in the same area last November. Recently-held inquests on the deaths of the two soldiers recorded verdicts of unlawful killing at the hands of insurgents, having heard IEDs were responsible for both tragedies.