The number of US soldiers killed in the Afghan war this year is the highest annual toll since the conflict began almost nine years ago, according to an Agence-France Presse (AFP) count yesterday.
A total of 323 US soldiers have been killed in the Afghan war this year, compared with 317 for all of last year, according to AFP figures based on the independent icasualties.org Web site.
Foreign forces suffered a grim spike in deaths last month as the Taliban insurgency intensified, with NATO confirming yesterday that a sixth US soldier was killed on one of the bloodiest days this year.
At 490, the overall death toll for foreign troops for the first eight months of the year is rapidly closing in the number registered in all of last year, which at 521 was a record since the start of the war in late 2001.
In all 1,270 US troops have lost their lives, out of 2,058 foreign military fatalities, since the conflict began with the US-led invasion of Afghanistan following the Sept. 11attacks on New York and Washington in 2001.
Military leaders say the spike in deaths reflects the injection of additional troops into Afghanistan, leading to a higher number of battlefield engagements with Taliban-led insurgents.
In recent months Taliban improvised explosive devices (IEDs) have become the biggest killers of US and NATO troops as the insurgents adapt their battlefield techniques to counter Western forces’ heavier armor.
A UN report in June noted an “alarming” 94 percent increase in IED incidents in the first four months of this year compared with last year.
Meanwhile, a bomb attack in Kandahar yesterday killed the director of the local office for facilitating pilgrimages to Islamic holy sites, police said.
One other person was killed in the attack on Mohammad Hassan Taimuri and two people wounded, Kandahar police chief Sher Mohammed Zazai said.
The bomb appeared to be a remote controlled device concealed on a motorcycle which exploded as the director was leaving his office, witness Asad Jan Aghra said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility and it was not clear why anyone would target the director, whose job makes him responsible for managing Islamic religious institutions and arranging pilgrimages to the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
In related news, Pakistani government air raids have killed up to 45 militants, their family members and other civilians with no ties to the fighters, officials said yesterday.
Three strikes on Tuesday night targeted Pakistani Taliban militants in one of their strongholds in the Tirah Valley in the northwestern Khyber region on the Afghan border.
“We have reports that 40 to 45 terrorists were killed,” a security official said.
Rehan Khattak, a senior government official in Khyber, said six civilians, including women and children, were killed in one of the strikes and they had nothing to do with militants.
“Four people were also wounded. They were members of Kokikhel,” Khattak said, referring to a pro-government Pashtun tribe which dominates Khyber.
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