Bomb blast kills coalition service member in southern Afghanistan

Bomb blast kills coalition service member in southern Afghanistan

2011-03-21 08:14:06 GMT+7 (ICT)

KABUL (BNO NEWS) -- A coalition service member was killed in an attack in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said on early Monday.

ISAF said the service member was killed as a result of an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in southern Afghanistan, without giving other details about the incident.

The nationality of the service member 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 in recent years, with a total coalition death toll of 709 in 2010, making it the deadliest year for international troops since the war began 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 of 9/11, which killed nearly 3,000 people from scores of countries, was considered an attack on all NATO nations. The NATO-backed war in Afghanistan aims to defeat the Taliban and other insurgent groups in the country.

So far this year, more than 90 coalition service members have been killed in Afghanistan. Most troops are killed in the country's south, which is plagued by IED attacks on troops and civilians.

On Saturday, two coalition service members were killed in southern Afghanistan following a shooting incident with a security guard. And in eastern Afghanistan, an IED attack killed another service member.

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