Insurgents Kill Nato Service Member In Afghan'S South

[News_Editor]

Insurgents kill NATO service member in Afghan's south < br /> 2012-05-01 06:17:32 GMT+7 (ICT) KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (BNO NEWS) -- Insurgents attacked coalition service members in southern Afghanistan on Monday, killing one of them, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said. Few other details were released about the incident.ISAF said one of its service members was killed as a result of an insurgent attack in Afghanistan's south. 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 nationality of the service member involved was also not immediately disclosed by ISAF, again per its policy. "It is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities," ISAF said in a brief statement, giving no specific details. The alliance does also not report injuries.Further on Monday, the U.S. Department of Defense identified two American service members who died in southern Afghanistan on Saturday. 20-year-old Pfc. Christian R. Sannicolas, of Anaheim, California, died of injuries he sustained when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device (IED) in Kandahar province. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.38-year-old Master Sgt. Scott E. Pruitt, of Gautier, Mississippi, died as a result of injuries sustained in action in Nimruz province. Other details about the attack were not immediately released. He was assigned to I Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters Group, I Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton in California.At least two other soldiers were also killed on Saturday, but their identities and nationalities were not yet released as of Monday. ISAF said, in addition to Sannicolas and Pruitt, one ISAF service member died of non-battle related injuries in Afghan's south while another was killed in an IED attack in the country's east.The death on Monday raises the number of coalition troops killed in Afghanistan so far this year to 134, most of them American and British service members, according to official figures. A British soldier died on Friday after he was shot by an insurgent while on patrol in the Nahr-e-Saraj district of Helmand province, which is located in Afghanistan's south.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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