| Submit your comments on this article |
| Afghanistan |
| Six NATO troops killed in Afghanistan |
| 2010-01-11 |
| KABUL -- Six foreign soldiers -- three of them American and at least one French -- were killed Monday in a wave of violence in Afghanistan, NATO and French defence officials said. The NATO-led alliance said that in addition to the Americans and the French soldier, two others had died of their wounds. An official speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP one of the two was also French. One of those whose nationality was not officially identified was killed by an improvised bomb in southern Afghanistan, said the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. Monday's deaths take to 15 the number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan so far this year, according to an AFP tally based on that kept by the independent website icasualties.org. In the attack on French troops, insurgents raided a convoy of French and Afghan forces in the Alasay valley northeast of Kabul, according to President Nicolas Sarkozy's office. "A non-commissioned officer paid with his life for the commitment of France to the peace and security of the Afghan people, and an officer was very gravely wounded," Mr. Sarkozy's statement said. About half of the 3,750 French soldiers serving in Afghanistan with NATO forces fighting a Taliban insurgency are based in Kapisa province and the neighbouring region of Sarobi, outside Kabul. The Americans were killed "in an engagement with enemy forces in southern Afghanistan," ISAF said without giving further details, including the exact location of the incident. Of the 2009 casualties, 317 were US nationals while the rest were from more than 40 other nations in the coalition fighting the Taliban under U.S. and NATO command. |
| Posted by:Steve White |