KABUL (AFP) — Two US soldiers operating under NATO were killed in bomb explosions in Afghanistan, military officials said Sunday, as troops pressed a major assault against the Taliban in the south.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force said the troopers were killed "as a result of improvised explosive device strikes from insurgents" on Saturday.
A spokeswoman for the separate US-led force said the victims were US nationals.
The ISAF initially said four US soldiers had been killed, but later corrected the figure saying the deaths had been mistakenly double-counted.
"There was a mistake, the same incident was counted twice. Two ISAF US service members were killed by an IED," said a spokeswoman, referring to improvised explosive devices.
Another soldier died of wounds received in combat in Afghanistan last month, ISAF added.
The casualties follow the deaths on Thursday and Friday of eight British soldiers also deployed under NATO ISAF -- the deadliest 24-hour period for the British forces in decades.
Altogether, 15 British soldiers have died this month, prompting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Saturday to concede recent days had been "extraordinarily difficult" while defending the current strategy.
According to the independent www.icasualties-org website, which tracks military casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, around 192 foreign soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan this year, without counting the latest deaths.
The new fatalities come as about 4,000 US Marines, thousands of British troops and Afghan security forces battle their way into some of the most dangerous insurgent strongholds in the southern province of Helmand.
The operations are designed to clean out areas of rebels to allow Afghans to vote in presidential and provincial council elections due on August 20.
Afghan interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said up to 200 insurgents were killed in one of the operations launched by mainly British and Afghan troops in Helmand three weeks ago.
"We have killed around 150 to 200 enemy fighters" as part of Operation Panther's Claw," Bashary told reporters in the capital, Kabul. "This is not a final death toll as the operations continue," the spokesman added.
It was the first official figure issued for insurgent casualties in the operation.
Authorities have not said how many have been killed in a US Marines operation codenamed Khanjar (dagger), launched further south in Helmand on July 2.
There are about 90,000 international troops, mainly US, British and Canadian, deployed in Afghanistan to help Kabul defeat an insurgency being waged by the remnants of the Taliban who were in power between 1996 and 2001.
Despite the presence of the international forces the Taliban have since managed to regroup in the form of an insurgency trying to topple the Western-backed government in Kabul.
The Taliban have gained pace every year, making the 2009 the deadliest for the mainly Western international force.
Highlighting the surge in violence, Bashary said six to 10 police officers were losing their lives every day, citing a survey into police casualties since the start of the Afghan new year which runs from late March.
Militant strikes had over the past seven days also killed 69 civilians, showing a 37 percent increase over the week before, Bashary added.
"On an average basis, six to 10 police lose their lives while on duty, providing security for the people," Bashary said. Last year the police death toll was six per day, he said.
Five policemen were killed on Saturday when a remote-controlled bomb blew up their vehicle as they were travelling to work in Logar, just south of Kabul, provincial police chief Mustafa Mohsini said.
Also on Saturday, a roadside bomb blew up a vehicle transporting the commander of a small Afghan reserve police unit in the southern province of Helmand, killing him and his guard, provincial spokesman Daud Ahmadi said.
Over a dozen rebels were killed in the same region separately, authorities said.
Despite the surge in violence, US President Barack Obama said US and NATO-led troops had pushed back the Taliban in Afghanistan but he warned that there was still a long, hard campaign ahead.
"We knew that this summer was going to be tough fighting, that there was an interest in the Taliban exerting control. They have, I think, been pushed back but we still have a long way to go," Obama said in an interview with Britain's Sky News on Saturday during his visit to Ghana.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
