Six NATO troops die in Afghan attack

[News_Editor]

Six NATO troops die in Afghan attack

2010-12-12 19:25:20 GMT+7 (ICT)

KABUL (BNO NEWS) -- Six coalition service members were killed in an attack in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.

ISAF said the service members were killed as a result of an insurgent attack in the country's south, but provided no other information about the attack.

The nationality of the service members was also not immediately disclosed. "It is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities," an ISAF statement said.

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, nearly 700 coalition service members have been killed in Afghanistan. Most of them were American and died in Afghanistan's war-torn southern region. In 2009, the total death toll stood at 521.

Late last month, six American troops were killed in eastern Afghanistan when an Afghan Border Policeman opened fire at them at a border police outpost in the Pachir wa Agam district of Nangarhar province. The gunman was killed by troops who returned fire.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2010-12-12