Kabul, March 25: A NATO soldier has been killed during a firefight with insurgents in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said, taking to 134 the number of foreign troops killed this year in the country.
“An ISAF service member died as a result of a small-arms attack in southern Afghanistan,” NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement released late Wednesday.
It did not give further details, and the nationality of the soldier was not disclosed, as per ISAF policy.
An AFP tally based on a count kept by the independent www.icasualties.org website puts the number of foreign soldiers to die in Afghanistan unrest this year at 134 — compared with 78 for the first quarter of 2009.
The number of foreign soldiers under US and NATO command is set to peak at 150,000 by August, under US President Barack Obama’s new strategy for quelling a worsening insurgency led by Taliban militants now in its ninth year.
–Agencies