Two SAS soldiers die in Oman

Two members of the SAS have been killed while training in Oman. One soldier died on Thursday from injuries sustained while parachuting just over two weeks ago, and the other was killed by mortar fire last Saturday.

The Ministry of Defence said an inquiry would be held into the deaths, which occurred during a routine army field training exercise. One of the troopers was believed to have served in Afghanistan, while the other was said to be comparatively new to the unit.

An army source said: "There is nothing sinister about what happened and this is not the first time that SAS members have been killed while on exercise."

The training exercise had been planned for some time and had no direct link to any operations in Iraq, defence sources said. However, the number of exercises in Oman is to increase significantly for the rest of the year.

The Gulf state was used for last year's Saif Sareea II exercise, which was widely perceived as a dress rehearsal for any conflict with the regime of Saddam Hussein. It was the biggest deployment of British arms since the Gulf War.

Oman was a staging post for British and US forces during the war in Afghanistan.