Two Nato Troops Die In Afghan Rocket Attack

Two NATO troops die in Afghan rocket attack < br />

2012-05-19 22:32:24 GMT+7 (ICT)

NARI, AFGHANISTAN (BNO NEWS) -- Two international service members were killed on Friday when insurgents fired a rocket at a coalition base in eastern Afghanistan, officials said on Saturday. Six other service members are believed to have been injured.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said two of its service members were killed as a result of an insurgent attack in the region. It gave no other details, but a provincial official said a rocket possibly fired by the Taliban had struck an ISAF base in the Nari district of Kunar province.

"We were informed that two soldiers of ISAF were killed and six more were injured," the Afghan official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. ISAF could not confirm the number of injuries or identify the nationalities of the service members involved due to its policy.

In a separate incident on Friday, two children and one adult were killed when four mortar shells struck a residential house in the Watapur district of Kunar province. Four other children and two women were injured and transported to the Kunar civil hospital, according to the Pajhwok news agency.

The deaths on Friday raise the number of coalition troops killed in Afghanistan so far this year to 160, according to official figures. 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 by the end of this summer, and foreign combat troops are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

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