|
Two US occupation soldiers in Afghanistan died Thursday after separate militant attacks, NATO said, compounding the bloodiest year yet for American forces in the Afghan war. NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said one attack took place in the country's east, the other in the south. ISAF confirmed to AFP that both were Americans. 2010 was the deadliest for US troops in Afghanistan. A total of 326 US soldiers have been killed in the Afghan war in 2010, compared with 317 for all of 2009, according to AFP figures based on the independent icasualties.org website. The number of international troops killed in Afghanistan so far in 2010 stands at 493, not far off the 2009 total of 521. The commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, US General David Petraeus, told AFP earlier this week that international forces should reach full strength of 150,000 within days. That includes an extra 30,000 US troops ordered by President Barack Obama as part of a surge aimed at speeding an end to nearly nine years of war. ¬
Source: Al Manar
|