Two coalition troops die in Afghan attacks

[News_Editor]

Two coalition troops die in Afghan attacks

2010-11-18 03:26:11 GMT+7 (ICT)

KABUL (BNO NEWS) -- Two coalition service members were killed in two separate attacks in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said on Thursday.

ISAF said one of the service members was killed as a result of an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in the country's south, while another service member died as a result of an unrelated insurgent attack in the same region.

No other details about the attacks were released, including the nationalities of the service members. "It is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities," ISAF said in a brief statement.

Coalition casualties in Afghanistan have been rising sharply this year, with around 90 fatalities in July alone, making it the deadliest month for U.S. forces since the war began on October 7, 2001 in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

The council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) eventually declared that the attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people from scores of countries, was considered an attack on all NATO nations. The NATO-backed war aims to defeat the Taliban and other insurgent groups in the country.

So far this year, more than 650 coalition service members have been killed in action. Most of them were American and died in Afghanistan's war-torn southern region. In 2009, the total death toll stood at 521.

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