Editor's Note:

Readers are advised that the following news sources are Pro-NATO, that's why they use hostile, derogatory or inaccurate terminology (such as rebels, insurgents, militants, and terrorists) when they refer to Taliban fighters, who resist the NATO occupation forces.

Two NATO soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan

Tuesday, October 19, 2010
KABUL (AFP) –

Two NATO soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the military said, bringing to 595 the number of foreign troops to die in the Afghan conflict so far this year.

NATO did not release the nationalities of the soldiers, announcing separately that one was killed in "an insurgent attack" and the second in an "improvised explosive device (IED) explosion".

This year's toll is the worst on record and compares to 521 in 2009, according to an AFP tally based on the independent icasualties.org website.

Separately, the alliance said that air strikes killed a Taliban "military leader" and 15 other insurgents in northern province Baghlan on Sunday.

NATO added that Afghani and NATO forces killed "numerous insurgents" on Monday in Shah Wali Kot district of Kandahar province, the Taliban's spiritual powerbase and one of the deadliest battlefields in the south.

The US and NATO have more than 150,000 troops in Afghanistan fighting a nine-year Taliban-led insurgency (resistance to NATO forces) aimed at toppling the country's Western-backed government.

The rebels (Taliban fighters) have stepped up attacks every year since the Taliban regime collapsed following the late 2001 US-led invasion.

Insurgents kill eight security guards

Published: Oct. 18, 2010 at 9:14 AM
KABUL, Afghanistan, Oct. 18 (UPI) --

 Eight guards working for a private security company were killed in a clash with insurgents in Afghanistan, officials said. Three other guards were wounded.

The fighting occurred Sunday in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, CNN reported Monday.
The unnamed company provides security for a private firm working on the Kandahar-Heart Highway, said Daud Ahmadi, a spokesman for Helmand's governor.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's administration has called for the dissolution of virtually all private security firms operating in the country. He said exceptions are firms protecting embassies and foreign diplomats, the report said.
Karzai said security companies not protecting embassies and diplomats "are a strong threat for the national security and the national sovereignty of the country."

He ordered that 52 private security firms operating in Afghanistan be phased out by the end of 2010.The U.S. State Department said if the plan is implemented it will leave critical aid personnel unprotected and unable to do their work.