3 NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan Tue, 17 Aug 2010 07:45:10 GMT

Three US-led soldiers have been killed in two separate bomb attacks in eastern and western Afghanistan, a statement by NATO says.

Two NATO soldiers were killed on Tuesday in an attack in eastern Afghanistan, a troubled region which witnesses regular Taliban attacks, the statement added.

The third soldier was killed in a similar attack on Tuesday in the west of the country. The nationalities of the casualties were not disclosed, according to NATO policy.

According to a tally by the independent icasualties.org, the latest deaths took to 436 the number of international soldiers killed in Afghanistan since the start of 2010, AFP reported.

The increasing number of troop casualties in Afghanistan has caused widespread anger in the UK, US and other NATO member states, undermining public support for the continuation of the Afghan war.

Official figures released by NATO and the US military put the overall tally of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan at about 2,000. However, Afghanistan's official Baakhtar News Agency in a recent report said the war has claimed the lives of some 4,500 foreign soldiers.

There are close to 150,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan.

HSH/JG/MMA

Insurgents Pose as Civilian Casualties, as Afghan, U.S. Forces Inflict Heavy Toll on Insurgents in W

8/16/10 | Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force

August 16, 2010

RELEASE# 019

BADGHIS, Afghanistan –

Two (Taliban fighters referred to by NATO editors as insurgents) posed as civilian casualties and presented themselves to Afghan and coalition forces in Badghis province following an engagement where insurgents had attacked the partnered government force Aug 15.  The operation was a cordon and search mission by joint Afghan-U.S. forces that disrupted insurgent fighters and their weapons and financing network.

The action resulted in more than a dozen insurgent casualties. The two insurgents were taken into custody and their wounds were treated by coalition. No civilians were injured in the engagement.

During the combined force’s operation in and around the village of Tangi Buzbai, Bala Murghab district, the Afghan National Army soldiers from the 207th Corps assisted by a U.S. Marine Special Operations Team were attacked by an unknown number of insurgents using small arms and machine gun fire.  The Afghan-led force responded with small-arms fires and precision guided munitions from Coalition air forces on the insurgent positions.

Damage assessments after the engagement confirmed the more than a dozen insurgents injured or killed during the engagement. Also discovered during the after action assessment was physical information that led to the verification that the insurgents who posed as civilian casualties had indeed been involved in the fighting.

The two men, claiming they were injured during the engagement, approached Coalition forces looking to get medical treatment for their wounds, an MSOT sergeant said; however, they were positively identified by several Afghan sources as being insurgents.

“The two men matched exact descriptions given from the team leader on site during the attacks,” said Marine Sgt. Brian Kester, a Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Afghanistan spokesperson. “The team verified with local elders, provincial and district governors, and ANA leaders, that in fact, the two men were indeed insurgents.”

The ANA soldiers and MSOT medical personnel on scene provided immediate medical treatment to the injured men, and readied them for transfer to a medical facility in the Murghab River Valley for follow-on care and continued custody.