US soldier killed in Afghanistan lifts death toll to 12 this year

A US soldier has died in Afghanistan, foreign forces said, taking the number of American fighters killed in action in the country this year to 12. The unidentified soldier "died as a result of wounds sustained during operations" on Saturday afternoon in Logar province, south of Kabul, US Forces said. The incident comes days after another US soldier died following a helicopter crash in the same province that also wounded six US crew members. US soldiers have been mainly in a non-fighting role in Afghanistan since the end of 2014 when Nato combat troops withdrew from the country.
That has made US battlefield deaths relatively rare. The Taliban vowed to turn Afghanistan into a "graveyard" for foreign forces after US President Donald Trump made an open-ended commitment earlier this year to keep American boots on the ground.