 3/7 flooded the green zone with Marines and 3rd Combat Engineer Battalion Provided Assault Breacher Vehicles upon arrival and controlled areas from Route 611 to the Helmand River in a months time.In September 2010, Liam Fox, the United Kingdom's Secretary of State for Defence, announced that northern Helmand would be transferred to the United States Marine Corps (USMC).A third of all British deaths in Afghanistan, (approximately 100), occurred over four years of occupation in Sangin.