14 Taliban, one US soldier killed in Afghanistan

KABUL, Oct 18, 2009 (AFP) - A roadside bomb attack claimed the life of one US soldier in Afghanistan, while 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.

Southern Afghanistan -- the spiritual heartland of the Taliban -- has seen the most fierce fighting since US-led international forces toppled the hardline Islamist regime in 2001


by Jeanie Stokes
(c) 2009 AFP