A US soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, while Afghan forces backed by foreign troops killed a Taliban militant in central region, Nato said Saturday.The US soldier died in the blast on Friday, Nato-led International Security Assistance Force said in a statement. It did not provide details. This year has been the deadliest for US and Nato forces since the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001.
More than 500 international soldiers - with more than 300 of them from the United States - have been killed in the Afghan conflict so far this year. Meanwhile, Afghan and international troops conducted an operation on early Saturday in Nerkh district of central province of Wardak against a Taliban commander, thought to have been responsible for planning attacks against Afghan and Nato forces in the province, the ISAF statement said.
When the joint forces approached the targeted compound, the "heavily armed" Taliban commander ran to a nearby mosque, the statement said, adding that the Afghan forces surrounded the mosque and called on the targeted man to surrender. "The Taliban commander opened fire with his AK-47 while in the mosque and was killed by the Afghan security force," it added.