Three NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan

KABUL, March 7, 2010 (AFP) - Three NATO soldiers were killed in Afghanistan on Sunday in separate incidents, the international force said, bringing the number of foreign troops who have died in the war this year to 117.

One soldier was killed by gunfire and another by an improvised bomb in the south of the country, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement.

The third soldier was killed by gunfire in the east.

NATO did not give the precise locations of the killings, or the nationalities of the dead.

Southern Afghanistan has seen the worst violence in the Taliban-led insurgency.

Last year was the deadliest yet for foreign troops in Afghanistan, with 519 fatalities reported in the conflict.

AFP's count of 117 this year is based on a tally kept by the independent icasualties.org website and exceeds the 77 foreign troops killed in the first three months of last year.

There are about 121,000 US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, with numbers due to rise to 150,000 by the end of this year.

About 15,000 US, NATO and Afghan troops have since February 13 been battling the Taliban in a major assault in Helmand province's Marjah and Nad Ali areas.

President Hamid Karzai, accompanied by the commander of the NATO and US forces General Stanley McChrystal, visited the town of Marjah on Sunday and appealed to residents to support his government.


by Nasser Abu Bakr
(c) 2010 AFP