Kabul: Insurgents killed another five US
soldiers in Afghanistan's southern Taliban stronghold, NATO
said on Friday, with their commander poised to request more troops
to avoid failure in the eight-year war.
Two soldiers were killed outright and three later died of
their injuries in a trio of separate incidents yesterday, the
NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said
today.
"Two members were killed and one died from wounds as a
result of an improvised explosive device (IED) detonation,"
ISAF said, referring to the remote-controlled bombs that have
become the scourge of troops in Afghanistan.
"One service member died of gunshot wounds from an
insurgent attack and one service member died of wounds
sustained in an insurgent attack while on patrol," the
statement added.
NATO and the United States have more than 100,000 troops
in Afghanistan fighting a Taliban-led insurgency, which is at
its deadliest level in the eight years since the 2001 US-led
invasion ousted the Taliban regime in Kabul.
The ISAF statement quoted US spokeswoman Captain Regina
Gillis as confirming the five dead soldiers were from the
United States.
According to the independent icasualties website, which
keeps a tally of military deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq, 371
foreign troops have died in Afghanistan so far this year,
compared to 294 for all of 2008.
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, September 25, 2009, 18:31