Three American and two Latvian soldiers were killed in an attack by insurgents in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, US forces and Latvia's Defence Ministry said. US military spokeswoman Captain Elizabeth Mathias said insurgents attacked an outpost in the eastern sector with small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades and struck an ammunition store, causing an explosion.
Latvia's Defence Ministry said the western soldiers were killed with three Afghan soldiers in the attack by Taliban fighters or other insurgents in eastern Afghanistan's Kumar region. "The Latvian soldiers were on a mission to train the Afghan National Army," said Normunds Stafeckis, a spokesman for Latvia's Defence Ministry, adding several other soldiers were injured in the attack. International and Afghan forces returned fire and called for support from the air, said US's Mathias, but gave no further details of the location of the incident.