Kabul, September 25: Insurgents killed another five US soldiers in Afghanistan’s southern Taliban stronghold, NATO said Friday, with their commander poised to request more troops to avoid failure in the eight-year war.
Two soldiers were killed outright and three later died of their injuries in a trio of separate incidents on Thursday, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said Friday.
“Two members were killed and one died from wounds as a result of an improvised explosive device (IED) detonation,” ISAF said, referring to the remote-controlled bombs that have become the scourge of troops in Afghanistan.
“One service member died of gunshot wounds from an insurgent attack and one service member died of wounds sustained in an insurgent attack while on patrol,” the statement added.
NATO and the United States have more than 100,000 troops in Afghanistan fighting a Taliban-led insurgency, which is at its deadliest level in the eight years since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the Taliban regime in Kabul.
The ISAF statement quoted US spokeswoman Captain Regina Gillis as confirming the five dead soldiers were from the United States.
According to the independent icasualties website, which keeps a tally of military deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq, 371 foreign troops have died in Afghanistan so far this year, compared to 294 for all of 2008.
Of those deaths, 213 are US military personnel, the site says.
The war in Afghanistan has become increasingly deadly in recent months as the Taliban stepped up the use of IEDs, to devastating effect.
Military leaders say they are trying to develop new ways to deal with the IED threat, but that the Taliban change their own tactics just as quickly.
The Pentagon said Wednesday that the senior US commander in Afghanistan will submit a request for more troops this week but Washington will not decide on the issue until it completes a review of war strategy.
The details of General Stanley McChrystal’s request remain unclear but he is reportedly expected to ask for at least 10,000 additional troops to help turn the tide against Taliban insurgents.
In an assessment leaked to US media, the commander warned the NAT0-led mission faces failure without more resources and called for a shift in emphasis from killing rebels to winning the support of ordinary people.
McChrystal, who assumed command in June, said in the report that the Afghan campaign “has been historically under-resourced and remains so today”.
“Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near-term (next 12 months) — while Afghan security capacity matures — risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible,” he wrote.
US President Barack Obama has already ordered 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan. There are about 65,000 US troops in Afghanistan, due to reach 68,000 by the end of year.
Southern Afghanistan, the spiritual home of the Taliban, has been the worst killing field for Western troops.
Foreign forces fired in the direction of Taliban mortar fire in the Watapur district of Kandahar province on Thursday, hitting a house and killing four civilians, district governor Zalmai Yousufzai said.
The dead were three women and a man, he said.
In Helmand province, Taliban fighters and Afghan police have been fighting since Thursday after militants attacked a police post in Musa Qala district, killing one police officer and wounding seven, an official said.
“The fighting is still ongoing,” district governor Abdul Salaam told AFP, claiming there were “15 Taliban killed so far”.
In neighbouring Kandahar province, police attacked Taliban militants as they laid IEDs on a highway, said provincial police chief Assadullah Shairzad.
“Two enemies were killed, they left their dead behind and the rest of them escaped,” he said.
–Agencies