A French officer died after clashes with Taleban on Saturday while an Afghan intelligence agent and three guards were killed as more violence shook southern Afghanistan, officials said.
A Canadian soldier was meanwhile wounded when insurgents opened fire on a patrol in the volatile south, a hotbed for violence blamed mostly on rebels loyal to the ousted Taleban regime, Canadian television announced.
The incidents involving the foreign troops occurred in Kandahar, one of the provinces worst-hit by an insurgency launched by the Taleban after they were ousted in a US-led campaign in late 2001.
The French military and defence ministry announced in Paris that the French special forces officer was killed in clashes with Taleban forces. The officer of a marine commando unit was the second French soldier to be killed in action in Afghanistan.
The US-led coalition confirmed in Kabul that one of its troops was killed in a clash with insurgents in Kandahar, from where the Taleban rose to take power of Afghanistan in 1996, effectively ending a devastating four-year civil war.
One of its troops "died of wounds received in an engagement in Kandahar province today. Two insurgents also were killed in the engagement," it said in a statement.
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