A roadside bomb killed two Nato service members on Wednesday in eastern Afghanistan, the alliance said, in a day of violence that left a total of seven Afghan army and Nato personnel dead. The US-led coalition did not provide additional details, but the deaths raise to 471 the number of Nato troops killed so far this year in the country.
The deaths come as Afghan and international forces are stepping up their fight against Taliban and al Qaeda-linked insurgents in the east of the country, with a focus along Afghanistan's border with Pakistan. That area is rife with insurgent activity and the top Nato commander in the country said the alliance had recently launched an operation in the east targeting the feared Haqqani network, a group that operates from within Pakistan.
Earlier in the day, a roadside mine exploded as four Afghan army soldiers and an officer were passing by on the way back to their base in the Pashtun Zarghun district of the western Afghan province of Herat, said Mohyaddin Noori, the spokesman for the province's governor.