UNITED STATED
Four NATO service members were killed in a bomb attack in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, the military coalition said.The international alliance did not provide further details, in keeping with a policy of waiting for national authorities to announce the citizenship of victims and specifics of an incident.
Two other NATO deaths had already been reported Wednesday, making a total of six service members killed for the day. One of those died in an insurgent attack in the east and the other in a bomb explosion in the south.
This has been the deadliest year for international troops in the nine-year Afghan conflict, and the escalating toll has shaken the commitment of many NATO countries, with rising calls to start drawing down troops quickly.
Including the latest deaths, at least 34 NATO service members have been killed so far this month in Afghanistan.
Even so, it is rare for so many service members to die in one incident.
In the last incident with large casualties, nine American service members died in a helicopter crash last month in the south. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear. Though the Taliban claimed to have shot down the craft, NATO said there were no reports of enemy fire at the time in the Daychopan district of Zabul province, where the crash took place.
The Taliban often exaggerate their claims and sometimes take credit for accidents.
More than 2,000 NATO service members have died since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001.
In the east, meanwhile, an insurgent commander from the Haqqani network and three other militants were killed in a firefight with NATO and Afghan forces, NATO said.
Ansari Khan, a Haqqani leader accused of conducting attacks on coalition forces, died in a clash in Khost province's Spera district in an overnight operation Tuesday, a NATO statement said.
As the security force moved in on a compound, two insurgents threw a grenade and opened fire. Retaliatory fire killed four militants, including Khan, it said.
The Haqqani network is a Pakistan-based faction of the Taliban with close ties to al-Qaida.
The group was started by Jalaluddin Haqqani, a commander supported by Pakistan and the United States during the 1980s war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.
Haqqani has since turned against the United States, and American military officials have said his organization, now effectively led by his son, Sirajuddin, presents one of the greatest threats to foreign forces in Afghanistan.
In southern Afghanistan, Ahmed Khan, chief of Dihrawud district in Uruzgan province, was fatally shot by insurgents Tuesday at a market, according to Mohammad Naeem, the district police chief.
In the north — where violence has surged in recent weeks — Taliban commander Shirin Agha and another militant were killed in a coalition airstrike in Kunduz province on Monday, NATO said.
Afghan and coalition forces have targeted Taliban leaders throughout northern Afghanistan over the past month, with 18 commanders killed or captured, the alliance said.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi has accused NATO of engaging in a propaganda campaign to demoralize the insurgents by inventing Taliban leaders and alleging they were killed or captured.(By ROBERT KENNEDY, Associated Press Writer)
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