Kabul: A roadside bomb killed four NATO
service members on Saturday in eastern Afghanistan, the coalition
said. Elsewhere in the east, a female suicide bomber detonated
her explosives near a coalition convoy, wounding three Afghan
guards.
More than 200 NATO troops have died so far this year in
Afghanistan, and today`s bombing marked the deadliest day for
NATO service members since May 26, when a total of nine US
troops were killed.
Earlier, the coalition said two service members were
killed yesterday in separate insurgent attacks in southern
Afghanistan, where fighting has picked up since the Taliban
launched a spring offensive against Afghan and international
troops last month.
There have been reports of heavy fighting in southwest
Helmand province between US forces and insurgents trying to
regain territories they lost in the fall and winter following
a surge of 30,000 mostly American troops.
The coalition did not disclose further details of the
deaths, or the troops` nationalities, from the attacks
yesterday and today.
In an email sent to news organisations, Taliban spokesman
Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the rare suicide
attack by the woman in eastern Kunar province.
The Taliban have made it one of their goals to regain
control of the provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, which are
both the wellspring of their movement and the main source of
their funding mostly from the cultivation and sale of opium.
They have also increased the number of suicide attacks and
assassinations.
Kandahar has remained particularly violent, with a
bombing at the university that killed two students, followed
by another explosion as police arrived, according to
university vice president Hazrat Mir Totakhail.
PTI
