NATO troop deaths in Afghanistan approach grim record

Wed June 23, 2010, 1:58 pm ET

KABUL (AFP) –

Six NATO soldiers were killed in attacks in Afghanistan on Wednesday, alliance forces said, bringing to 75 the number of foreign troops who have died in the troubled nation this month.

The deaths of one British marine and five other soldiers, whose nationalities were not released, made it nearly certain June would be the worst month for NATO casualties since the 2001 invasion to oust the Taliban.

The British marine was killed in a small arms fire in Helmand province, a hotbed of the Taliban (resistance to NATO forces) in southern Afghanistan, the UK defence ministry said in statement.

Four other soldiers died in homemade bomb attacks -- two in the south, one in the east and one in the west -- while one soldier died in an accident on patrol in western Afghanistan NATO announced in Kabul.

The deadliest month for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the nine-year war occurred in August last year, when 77 soldiers were killed.

So far 295 NATO troops have died this year, according to AFP tallies based on the independent icasualties.org website.

In a separate incident Wednesday, seven security guards were killed when their vehicle struck an improvised bomb in the province of Uruzgan in southern Afghanistan, a police official told AFP.

Much of southern Afghanistan is blighted by the Taliban (resistance to NATO forces), now in its deadliest phase since the US-led invasion and installed a Western-backed administration led by Hamid Karzai.

The US military has warned that casualties will inevitably mount as foreign forces build up their campaign to oust the militants from the southern province of Kandahar, a hotbed of bombings, assassinations and lawlessness.

British marine killed in Afghanistan

Wed Jun 23, 2010, 11:38 am ET

LONDON (AFP) –

Another British marine was killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday, taking the country's military death toll in the war-torn country to 303.

The marine was the fourth from 40 Commando Royal Marines to die in four days, during a week that saw the British toll in Afghanistan pass 300.

"It is with sadness that the Ministry of Defence must confirm the death of a marine from 40 Commando Royal Marines serving as part of Combined Force Sangin, on Wednesday 23rd June 2010," the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

"The marine was killed by small arms fire during a fire-fight with insurgent forces in the Sangin District of Helmand Province.

"He was conducting a security patrol to reassure local nationals in the area around the patrol base when the fire-fight occurred."

The latest death came in the Sangin district of the southern province of Helmand, where most of Britain's 9,500 troops in Afghanistan are deployed battling Taliban insurgents.

On Monday, officials announced the 300th military death in Afghanistan since 2001, prompting Prime Minister David Cameron to pledge to withdraw troops as soon as the war-torn state can handle its own security -- but not before.

The soldier's family has been informed of the death.

Female suicide bomber kills two U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan

 Wed June 23,  2010, 11:34 am ET

A woman detonated explosives hidden under her burqa in Afghanistan on Monday, killing two U.S. soldiers and injuring more than a dozen bystanders. Government officials tell The Wall Street Journal's Maria Abi-Habib and Habib Zahori that the bombing marks the first suicide attack perpetrated by a woman in Afghanistan, where all suicide attacks were taboo until fairly recently.

Should more women be recruited into suicide bombing, that could pose a significant threat to coalition forces in Afghanistan, experts say. That's because under Afghan army policy,  male officers are forbidden to search women. Male suicide bombers have tried in the past to take advantage of that policy by dressing in

burqas to elude searches. Gen. Stanley McChrystal has beefed up security searches of area women by using a group of women Marines as "female engagement teams." The Afghan army has also stepped up efforts to recruit women, but without much success.

The Taliban claimed credit for the attack, and said the bomber was named Bibi Alimi. Locals in Kunar

told the Journal that an Afghan coalition raided Alimi's home and killed two relatives two years ago, prompting her to join the Taliban. House raids are controversial, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai has called for them to end.

Al Qaeda is better known than the Taliban is for recruiting and training women to launch suicide attacks—a tactic the terrorist group used frequently in

Iraq. According to a 2008 U.S. government report quoted in Newsweek, 9 percent of suicide bombers worldwide are women, while 15 percent in Iraq are women. A suicide attack in a Russian subway station that killed almost 40 people in March was perpetrated by two Chechen women, CNN reported.

—Liz Goodwin is a national affairs writer for Yahoo! News