http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/09/17/ ... 253168897/Three U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan
Published: Sept. 17, 2009 at 2:28 AM
KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- Three U.S. soldiers died in southern Afghanistan after being hit by a roadside bomb blast, the U.S. military said.
The deaths occurred Tuesday but other details were not immediately available, the BBC reported, quoting a NATO spokesman.
The latest casualties raised to 22 the number of U.S. troops killed this month in the escalating Taliban violence in Afghanistan.
The New York Times, quoting icasualties.org, said Western military fatalities this year exceed 340, up 17 percent from the fatalities for all of last year.
Two British soldiers died Wednesday of injuries from separate explosions in south Afghanistan, The Guardian quoted the British Defense Ministry as saying.
One of them, from the 2nd Battalion The Rifles, was hit by a blast in Helmand. The second victim, with the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, died in Britain of injuries he suffered last Saturday after his armored vehicle was hit by an explosion in northwest Helmand.
Their deaths brought to 216 the number of British troops who have died in Afghanistan since October 2001, the Guardian said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8260419.stmAt least six Italian soldiers have been killed in a bomb attack on a military convoy in the Afghan capital, Kabul, Italian defence officials say.
Reports said two Italian military vehicles were hit by the bomb. At least 38 others were injured in the attack, the Afghan health ministry said.
The bomb went off near Kabul's diplomatic quarter in the city centre.
The blast comes as Afghan President Hamid Karzai reaffirmed his belief in last month's election process.
August's presidential election has been overshadowed by widespread allegations of fraud.
Bodies
Eyewitnesses say the blast shook buildings and that a plume of black smoke is now hanging over the area where the explosion occurred.
A reporter for the AFP news agency saw six bodies at the scene of the blast.
Two civilians and a soldier with the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) were seen lying by the roadside after the blast, while another foreign soldier was badly burnt, the agency reported.
An Isaf spokesman was unable to confirm the casualties, telling AFP: "We have no information about any Nato or Isaf involvement."
Photographs and television footage of the blast site showed the Italian flag on Isaf armoured vehicles, one of which was destroyed.
There have been several bomb attacks in Kabul this year.
Shortly before nationwide elections in August, Nato's Kabul headquarters was hit by a suicide car bomb attack which killed seven Afghan civilians.
Correspondents said then that the attack underscored the increasingly brazen nature of the Taliban threat.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=10 ... =351020403Two more British soldiers have been killed in separate blasts in southern Afghanistan, the UK Ministry of Defense has announced.
A British serviceman was killed on Wednesday when he was caught in an explosion in the Gereshk district of southern province of Helmand.
Another UK soldier wounded in a blast in Helmand died in a UK hospital the same day.
The deaths bring to 216 the number of the British troops killed in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion of the country in 2001.
The occupation forces have recently suffered important losses in southern Afghanistan where the Taliban have stepped up their attacks against coalition troops through roadside bombs and ambushes.
Thousands of US troops have been deployed in the south to bolster the Canadian and British-led operations in the Taliban's heartland.
MVZ/AKM