4 US-led Coalition soldiers, 1 Afghan killed in bomb attack
17/9/2008 17:22
A bomb attack killed four soldiers of the US-led Coalition forces and one
Afghan in eastern Afghanistan today, a statement of the US-led military released
in Kabul said.
"Four Coalition service members and one Afghan national were
killed in an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) strike in eastern Afghanistan
this morning," the statement said.
However, it did not identify the
nationalities of the victims, adding the names and nationalities of the service
members are being withheld until the next of kin are notified.
The Coalition
did not disclose the exact place of the incident either. Over 100 American
soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year mostly in the
militancy-plagued southern and eastern provinces.
The bomb blast came just
hours after US defense secretary Robert Gates arrived in Kabul late yesterday
for an unannounced visit to get first-hand information about the spiraling
Taliban- led militancy in Afghanistan.
Gates held talks with Afghan President
Hamid Karzai this morning and during the visit he is also expected to talk with
US military commanders.
Meanwhile, the Coalition forces in another statement
said that the troops killed two militants and detained two others during an
operation in the central Ghazni province yesterday.
A total of 71,000
international troops, half of them US service members, are stationed in
Afghanistan to stabilize security in the post-Taliban central Asian
state.
Taliban-related violence and conflicts have left over 3,800 people
including militants, Afghan and international troops as well as civilians and
aid workers dead this year in Afghanistan.
Xinhua
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