Kabul, Afghanistan ? An insurgent attack killed one British soldier and seriously wounded another Friday in the latest fighting to wrack southern Afghanistan, officials said.

Insurgents attacked the British soldiers in the southern province of Helmand at 4 p.m., according to statements from NATO and the British Ministry of Defense. One militant was killed in the fighting. The wounded soldier was evacuated for medical treatment.

Britain has nearly 4,000 troops deployed in Helmand as part of a NATO-led security force battling to bring security to turbulent southern Afghanistan.

Twenty-two British soldiers have died in the country since November 2001, 17 of them in March when the NATO force moved into Helmand, the hub of Afghanistan’s world-leading heroin industry.