Three NATO soldiers killed in Afghan bomb attacks

KABUL, Aug 17, 2010 (AFP) - Three NATO soldiers were killed Tuesday in Taliban-style bomb attacks in Afghanistan, the military said.

Two soldiers were killed in an attack in eastern Afghanistan, a troubled region which sees regular Taliban attacks, the force said in a statement.

Another died in a similar attack on Tuesday, in the west of the country. The nationalities of the casualties were not disclosed according to NATO policy.

Most of the troops in eastern Afghanistan are Americans, while an Italian contingent is based in the western province of Herat.

The latest deaths took to 436 the number of international soldiers killed in Afghanistan since the start of the year, compared to 520 for the whole of 2009, according to an AFP count based on that kept by the icasualties.org website.

There are close to 150,000 troops in Afghanistan in a US-led NATO force fighting to shore up Afghanistan's fledgling government and fight a Taliban-led insurgency, raging since the Islamists were thrown from power in late 2001.


by Shaun Tandon
(c) 2010 AFP