Gunmen abducted 16 mine-clearing personnel working for the United Nations in eastern Afghanistan, a provincial police chief said Sunday even as two British soldiers were killed in separate incidents.

“The men were kidnapped as they travelled between Paktia and Khost provinces on Saturday,” said Paktia’s police chief Azizullah Wardak. While insurgents operate in the area, Wardak could not say who was responsible for the kidnapping. Similar incidents have happened twice before in Paktia but were resolved successfully, he said.

The Ministry of Defence in UK said on Sunday that a soldier from 2nd Battalion The Mercian Regiment was killed by a rocket propelled grenade attack, and another soldier from The Light Dragoons was killed in an explosion. It says both attacks took place near Gereshk in Helmand province on Saturday.