14 Taliban, one US soldier killed in Afghanistan

October 18, 2009

KABUL (AFP) –

A roadside bomb attack claimed the life of one US soldier in Afghanistan, while (allegedly) 14 armed Taliban were killed in two separate incidents, NATO and the Afghan security forces said Sunday.

"One US service member was killed in an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in southern Afghanistan October 18," an ISAF statement said, without giving further details.

IEDs have become the main Taliban weapon in an intensifying insurgency against more than 100,000 foreign troops under US and NATO command in Afghanistan.

The independent icasualties.org website, which keeps a tally, says 418 foreign troops have died in Afghanistan this year, compared with 294 in 2008.

Meanwhile, Taliban fighters attacked a NATO convoy in western Badghis province, the Afghan military said.

"Six armed Taliban were killed including a local commander in Bala Murghab district," Khair Mohammad Khawri, a senior Afghan military official, told AFP.

Four Taliban were seriously injured, he added.

A separate incident in southern Uruzgan province left eight armed Taliban dead and three wounded after clashes with Afghan and international forces, provincial police chief General Juma Gul Hemat said.

Three US soldiers, 25 Taliban dead in Afghanistan

Sat Oct 17, 2009, 10:45 am ET

KHOST, Afghanistan (AFP) –

Bomb attacks in Afghanistan claimed the lives of three US soldiers, officials said on Saturday, as NATO and Afghan forces killed 25 Taliban fighters in separate assaults.

The NATO-run International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the three American troops died in two attacks on Friday.

"Two US service members were killed in an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in eastern Afghanistan October 16, and one US service member was killed in an IED attack in southern Afghanistan on the same day," ISAF said.

IEDs, home-made bombs planted on roadsides and difficult to detect, are claiming increasing numbers of foreign soldiers fighting the insurgency in Afghanistan.

US President Barack Obama is under pressure to order thousands more soldiers to Afghanistan, where the commander of the 100,000-strong US and NATO force, General Stanley McChrystal, has reportedly asked for 40,000 extra troops.

NATO's commander in the south, Dutch Major General Mart de Kruit, told AFP in an interview this week that 10,000 to 15,000 more troops were required to ensure security in the region.

In the deadliest incident reported Saturday, an air strike killed 20 (alleged) Taliban fighters late Friday in Urgun district, in southern Paktika province, said Hamidullah Zawak, spokesman for the provincial governor.

"These people intended to attack security posts and the US-led coalition. They were killed before they could do so," he told AFP by telephone.

The Afghan defence ministry said meanwhile five militants were killed in an Afghan army commando operation on Friday in the Gereshk district of Helmand province, also in the south.

In Sangin district, also in Helmand, one Afghan soldier was killed and another injured during a small-arms attack, the ministry added.

Southern Afghanistan -- the heartland of the Taliban -- has seen the most fierce fighting since US-led international forces toppled the Taliban government in 2001.