Kabul: A bomb attack has killed an Estonian
soldier in Afghanistan, bringing to four the number of NATO
personnel killed in the country's southern battlefield in 24
hours, the military said on Wednesday.
At least eight Afghan police and soldiers, whose training
is at the core of a sweeping new US strategy to turn around
the eight-year Taliban insurgency and defeat Al-Qaeda, were
also killed in separate incidents, officials said.
An improvised-explosive device (IED) killed the Estonian
during a foot patrol yesterday, said Captain Roy Hermkens, a
spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance
Force (ISAF).
Another IED killed a US soldier, while two British
soldiers, together with two Afghan soldiers, were killed in a
motorcycle suicide attack in the south yesterday, Hermkens
told agency.
London earlier announced the British deaths following a
suspected suicide bomb attack near Sangin in southern province
Helmand.
ISAF had also earlier announced the US death. The
makeshift bombs, usually planted at the side of a road, are
the biggest killers of foreign soldiers in Afghanistan and the
Taliban's weapon of choice.
This year is on record at the deadliest for foreign
troops in Afghanistan since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted
the Taliban regime.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, December 16, 2009, 20:22