009 deadliest year for foreign troops in Afghanistan

KABUL: The number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year surpassed that for all of 2008 on Tuesday with the deaths of four US military personnel in a bomb blast in the country’s south.

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The soldiers operating under NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed by an improvised bomb, the Taliban’s weapon of choice, in southern Afghanistan, the alliance force said.

The latest casualties bring to 63 the number of foreign soldiers who have died in Afghanistan this month and to 295 the death toll since January, making this the deadliest year for foreign troops since their 2001 arrival.

‘Four International Security Assistance Force service members were killed today as a result of an improvised explosive device (IED) detonation that occurred in southern Afghanistan,’ the force said in a statement.

It said only that the soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan, without giving the exact location. Southern Afghanistan comprises four provinces that are a major theatre for an increasingly bloody insurgency.

Quoting Navy Chief Petty Officer Brian Naranjo, the statement said the soldiers were Americans.

The soldiers were on patrol ‘in one of the most violent areas of Afghanistan’, the statement said.

The international force, now numbering more than 100,000 troops, lost 294 soldiers in 2008.

Of those killed so far this year, 172 were Americans compared to 155 who died in Afghanistan last year.

The rest of the dead soldiers were from other nations contributing to efforts to wipe out the escalating Taliban insurgency in the country.

Britain, Canada and the Netherlands are the biggest troop contributors to the international effort, after the United States.

The Taliban, in power between 1996 and 2001, have stepped up their attacks each year, prompting President Barack Obama’s administration to send additional troops in an effort to defeat the militants.

News of the latest troop deaths came after the government said that four Afghan civilians were killed and five were injured in a roadside bomb, in an eastern part of the strife-torn country.

The civilians were killed when a bomb, similar to that which killed the US troops and also planted by Taliban-linked rebels, struck their vehicle in Paktia province, bordering Pakistan.

The area is also struggling to cope with escalating Taliban activity.

The spike in troop deaths in Afghanistan has renewed debate in Britain and the US about their continuing role in the conflict.

Most of the deaths are caused by roadside bombs, which also claim a high number of civilian lives.

The violence comes as the war-torn country awaits the results from last week’s presidential elections, only the second in Afghanistan’s history.

Early results released Tuesday show President Karzai only two percent ahead of his nearest rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.

The final results are not due before September 3.—AFP

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