Kabul - Two US soldiers participating in NATO-led operations
were killed in two roadside bomb blasts in southern Helmand province,
the multi-national force in Afghanistan said Sunday.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had
earlier said four soldiers were killed, but later issued a correction
decreasing the number of deaths.
The US soldiers were killed on Saturday in two separate incidents
in southern Helmand province, where a major anti-Taliban assault
involving nearly 5,000 Afghan forces and US Marines is ongoing, a
NATO spokeswoman in Kabul earlier told German Press Agency dpa.
The ISAF confirmed the deaths of the soldiers in a statement, but
did not reveal the nationalities of the soldiers.
Southern Helmand is the main hub for Taliban insurgents, whose
government was toppled in a US military invasion in late 2001.
Fifteen British soldiers were killed in the province in the past
10 days, taking the total number British servicemen killed in
Afghanistan since their deployment in late 2001 to 186, more than the
number of British soldiers killded during the country's involvement
in Iraq. More than 8,300 British soldiers are stationed in Helmand.
The ISAF statement also said a third soldier succumbed to injuries
sustained in combat in Afghanistan last month. The soldier died on
July 10 in his home country, it said, but did not disclose his
nationality.
There are around 90,000 international troops deployed from 42
nations in Afghanistan. More than half are US soldiers.
Thousands of forces, mainly from the US, Canada, and Britain, are
taking part in several operations throughout the country to drive the
Taliban militants out of several districts and villages before the
August 20 presidential elections.
Afghan and British troops have killed up to 200 insurgents in
Helmand province as part of British-led Operation Panther's Claw in
the past three weeks, Zemarai Bashary, an interior ministry spokesman
told a press conference on Sunday.
Around 70 more insurgents were killed in a separate operation,
dubbed 'Khanjar' or 'Strike of Sword', conducted by some 4,000 US
Marine and 650 Afghan army and police forces in the Helmand province
since July 2, Zahir Azimi, a defence ministry spokesman, told a
separate press conference in Kabul on Sunday.
The objectives of the ongoing operations are to drive the
militants from several districts in Helmand in order to facilitate
security for the upcoming elections.
So far the combined forces have recaptured one district, while
efforts are underway to retake control of around five more districts.
Military sources have admitted that freshly planted roadside bombs by
the insurgents have hampered combined forces' advances toward the
remaining districts.
In another incident, Afghan and NATO forces retook control of the
Barg-e-Matal district in eastern Nuristan province, the Afghan
defence ministry and ISAF said in statements.
The combined forces entered the district center without any
resistance on Sunday morning, two days after the militants captured
the district following a bloody firefight that left 21 Taliban
fighters and six police officers dead.
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