KABUL - Ten servicemen with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) for Afghanistan were killed in separate incidents on Monday, the alliance said.
Two foreign civilians working for an American security company contracted to help train Afghan police were also killed in a Taliban suicide raid on a training camp in Kandahar, officials said.
It was one of the deadliest days in months for foreign troops fighting the Taliban. The Taliban are at their strongest since their overthrow in a U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
Five service members died in the same improvised explosive device (IED) attack in eastern Afghanistan, the alliance said. Two died in an IED blast and a third in another bomb attack in the south.
Two servicemen were killed by small arms fire in separate incidents in the south and east, it said.
ISAF does not release the names, nationalities or other details of casualties, leaving that to the governments of those concerned.
One of those killed was a French paratrooper whose death was announced by Paris. Three other French service members were wounded in the incident on a reconnaissance patrol in the south.
More than 1,800 foreign service members have died in Afghanistan since the Taliban was overthrown, but the number of foreign troops is about to peak at around 150,000 as part of an offensive against Taliban heartlands coupled with a push for development and better governance.
The Taliban says it will not entertain peace until all foreign troops have left, emboldened by U.S. plans to start withdrawing from 2011, leaving in place government security organisations such as the police and army that are relatively untested without foreign support.
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Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/world/foreign+troops+killed+Afghanistan/3123906/story.html#ixzz0qCnL8zbZ
Two foreign civilians working for an American security company contracted to help train Afghan police were also killed in a Taliban suicide raid on a training camp in Kandahar, officials said.
It was one of the deadliest days in months for foreign troops fighting the Taliban. The Taliban are at their strongest since their overthrow in a U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
Five service members died in the same improvised explosive device (IED) attack in eastern Afghanistan, the alliance said. Two died in an IED blast and a third in another bomb attack in the south.
Two servicemen were killed by small arms fire in separate incidents in the south and east, it said.
ISAF does not release the names, nationalities or other details of casualties, leaving that to the governments of those concerned.
One of those killed was a French paratrooper whose death was announced by Paris. Three other French service members were wounded in the incident on a reconnaissance patrol in the south.
More than 1,800 foreign service members have died in Afghanistan since the Taliban was overthrown, but the number of foreign troops is about to peak at around 150,000 as part of an offensive against Taliban heartlands coupled with a push for development and better governance.
The Taliban says it will not entertain peace until all foreign troops have left, emboldened by U.S. plans to start withdrawing from 2011, leaving in place government security organisations such as the police and army that are relatively untested without foreign support.
© Copyright (c) Reuters
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/world/foreign+troops+killed+Afghanistan/3123906/story.html#ixzz0qCnL8zbZ
