Kabul - A Canadian and a Latvian soldier serving in NATO
forces were killed in separate attacks in Afghanistan while the
Afghan Defence Ministry said Tuesday that its soldiers killed six
insurgents and arrested a Pakistani militant.
A Canadian soldier was killed and another wounded Monday when
militants attacks them with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms'
fire while they were protecting their outpost in the Panjwayi
district of the southern province of Kandahar, the Canadian defence
ministry said in a statement.
The latest death brought the number of Canadian forces killed in
Afghanistan since their deployment there in 2002 to 90.
A Latvian soldier was killed and three were wounded Monday in a
roadside bombing in Maimana, the provincial capital of the northern
province of Faryab, the military said in a statement.
Afghan police said two Norwegian soldiers were wounded in the
attack.
The explosion was triggered by a remote-controlled device and
wounded 13 Afghan civilians, police said.
Meanwhile, the Afghan Defence Ministry said in a statement that
six militants were killed Monday in a clash in the south-eastern
province of Paktika, which has long border with neighboring Pakistan.
A Pakistani militant who is a member of a group headed by
Baitullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban leader, was also arrested in
the same operation and seven AK-47 rifles were seized, the statement
said.
Afghan officials often accuse Pakistani-based militants of
crossing the porous border with Afghanistan and staging attacks on
Afghan and international forces. Mehsud has reportedly vowed to fight
the foreign forces in Afghanistan until their withdrawal.
The violence so far this year has left more than 2,600 people,
mostly insurgents, dead.
US-led coalition forces, meanwhile, said in a statement that their
soldiers arrested three militants Monday in the Orgun district of
Paktika province.
One of the detained militants was working as a courier between
foreign fighters and militant networks in Paktika, the statement
added.
USA
Your Talkback on this Story