LONDON, England (CNN) -- The British military marked a grim milestone Friday as the number of troops killed in Afghanistan surpassed the death toll in Iraq.
A British Marine is shown in Arbroath, Scotland, last year on the eve of a six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan.

A British Marine is shown in Arbroath, Scotland, last year on the eve of a six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan.

An especially bloody 10 days in Afghanistan's troubled Helmand province claimed 15 British lives, putting the total number of dead in that conflict at 184, the Defense Ministry said.

The British military has lost 179 soldiers in Iraq.

Five soldiers were killed Friday in two explosions that rocked the same patrol near the town of Sangin in Helmand province, where British troops are based.

The Defence Ministry earlier announced the deaths of three other soldiers in Helmand.

British troops have joined with roughly 4,000 U.S. Marines and sailors, and several hundred Afghan security forces, in Operation Khanjar, a drive to secure Helmand before Afghanistan's presidential elections in August.

Britain's Chief of the Defense Staff, Jock Stirrup, issued a video statement in which he mourned the latest losses.

"It's important we also remember why our people are fighting in Afghanistan and what they're achieving through their sacrifice and their courage," Stirrup said.

"The mission in Afghanistan is about supporting the delivery of governance in order to reduce the opportunities for extremist terrorist groups who are a direct threat to the United Kingdom, its citizens, and their interests."

Results are starting to emerge, he said, but the military still has a long way to go.

"It's tough going because the Taliban have rightly identified Helmand as their vital ground," he said. "If they lose there, they lose everywhere, and they're throwing everything they have into it. But they are losing."

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke about the military casualties while at the G8 summit in Italy on Friday, calling it a "very hard summer" so far for British forces.

"Our resolution to complete the work that we have started in Afghanistan and Pakistan is undiminished," he said. "We knew from the start that defeating the insurgency in Helmand would be a hard and dangerous job, but it is vital."

BAGHDAD (AP) — Below-average rainfall and insufficient water in the Euphrates and Tigris rivers have left Iraq bone dry for a second straight year, wrecking swaths of farm land, threatening drinking water supplies and intensifying fierce sandstorms that have coated the country in brown dust.

The drought has dealt a harsh blow to hopes that reductions in sectarian violence over the last year would fuel an economic recovery. Instead, the government's budget suffered a double-hit: Lower than expected oil prices have crimped revenues and the scarcity of water will force Iraq to spend money to import most of the crops, especially wheat and rice, to meet domestic demand.

"Look at this land. There is no water," said Ashur Mohamed Ahmood, slipping the tip of his black cane into deep cracks in his parched field. He cautioned children not to run, fearing their small bare feet would get stuck in the crevices crisscrossing the farm on the outskirts of Baghdad.

"Without water there are no plants. This is the plant," he says, uprooting a weed and throwing it back to the ground.

Historically, Iraq has been one of the more fertile nations in the region, thanks to the Tigris and Euphrates, which flow southeasterly through the entire nation. But for a second year, cropland in the north and west is parched and farmers in south and central Iraq are suffering from low water flows in both rivers — a phenomenon caused in part by the construction of dams built in neighboring Turkey and Syria.

"Which country closed the water on us?" Ahmood asked, reflecting the common belief among Iraqis that their country's neighbors are responsible for their plight. "Let them open the water for us so we can live here and water our plants."

As farmers complain of their ruined crops, the drought can be felt across the nation as gritty sandstorms lash Iraqis with increased frequency this summer. Last week's storm left tree leaves and vehicles coated with what looks like tan talcum powder.

A decline in acreage where plant roots once knitted the soil has only increased the severity of sandstorms, which are blowing across Iraq with increased frequency — nearly 20 so far this year. Two people died in the eastern city of Kut, and hundreds of Iraqis complaining of respiratory problems crowded emergency rooms across Iraq during the most recent three-day sandstorm, which many said was the worst in memory.

The storms often ground commercial flights. They scuttled U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's scheduled trip earlier this month from Baghdad to the semiautonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, where much of the country's wheat is grown.

Adding to the farmers' difficulties, the dwindling water supplies are suffering from high amounts of salt. "The impact of the drought will continue for years to come unless there will be huge efforts to bring in modern irrigation systems and abundant water to drain areas affected with high levels of salinity," said Mahdi al-Qaisi, undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Desertification, especially in mid and southern Iraq, has been accelerated by people cutting down trees for firewood, underinvestment and the pounding the land has taken from military vehicles and operations, he said.

The severity of the drought has resulted in a testy water dispute between Iraq and Turkey, which has built five dams along the Euphrates upstream from where it enters western Iraq. The quarrel recently cooled when Turkey agreed to release more water from its dams.