A US and another Nato soldier were killed in attacks in southern and eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the alliance said. The US service member was killed in an improvised bomb blast in southern Afghanistan while the other soldier, whose nationality was not disclosed, died in a firefight with insurgents in the east, it said.
Nato's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) did not provide further details including the exact locations of the incidents. Much of southern and eastern Afghanistan are troubled by a Taliban-led insurgency. The latest deaths, which follow those of three British and two Swedish soldiers, took to 64 the number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan since the start of the year.
Last year, the deadliest since the US-led invasion that toppled the Taliban regime in late 2001, 520 foreign soldiers lost their lives in violence, according to an AFP tally based on that kept by independent website icasualties.org. Military deaths have soared in Afghanistan, where about 113,000 international soldiers are deployed to fight back a Taliban-led insurgency aimed at toppling the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai. The troops, along with their Afghan counterparts, are preparing to launch an imminent assault against the Taliban in the Marjah district in southern Helmand, which is expected to be one of the largest offensives of the war.