Afghan Bomb Blast Kills Two Coalition Service Members

[News_Editor]

Afghan bomb blast kills two coalition service members 2012-04-23 11:30:12 GMT+7 (ICT) KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (BNO NEWS) -- Two coalition service members were killed on late Sunday evening when a roadside bomb exploded in eastern Afghanistan, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said on early Monday. Few other details were released.ISAF said two of its service members were killed when an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded in Afghanistan's east. But because the multinational force defers the release of specific details to national authorities, no other details about the incident were released, including the exact location.The nationalities of the service members involved were also not immediately disclosed by ISAF. "It is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities," a brief statement said.Sunday's deaths raise the number of coalition troops killed in Afghanistan so far this year to 122, most of them American and British service members, according to official figures. Four American service members were killed on late Thursday evening when their helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan, possibly due to bad weather.A total of 566 ISAF troops were killed in Afghanistan in 2011, down from 711 in 2010. A majority of the fallen troops were American and were killed in the country's south, which is plagued by IED attacks on troops and civilians.There are currently more than 130,000 ISAF troops in Afghanistan, including some 90,000 U.S. troops and more than 9,500 British soldiers. U.S. President Barack Obama previously ordered a drawdown of 23,000 U.S. troops later this year, and foreign combat troops are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

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