Several militants and five soldiers from the international troops stationed in Afghanistan have been killed since early Friday as militancy has been on rise in the war-torn country.
In the first incident, four soldiers of the U.S.-led Coalition forces were killed and two more were seriously wounded Saturday morning by roadside bombing while conducting operation in southern Afghan province of Kandahar, said a Coalition statement.
However, in the statement, the Coalition forces did not disclose the identity of the soldiers, adding the identity and nationality of the service members will be released pending notification of next of kin.
The incident came just a day after a roadside bombing killed one Coalition soldier and wounding three others in western Afghan province of Farah Friday evening.
Moreover, one soldier of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed and four others sustained injuries while several militants lost their lives in battles on Saturday, officials said.
"One ISAF soldier died and four received wounds from an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) while on patrol in the Dila district of Paktika province shortly after midnight today," an ISAF statement released here said.
In addition, Afghan troops backed by the U.S.-led Coalition forces eliminated several Taliban insurgents in Shah Wali kot district of southern Kandahar province on Thursday, a press release of the Coalition issued here Saturday said.
"Several militants were killed by Afghan National Security Forces and Coalition forces in Shah Wali Kot Disrtict, Kandahar province, Thursday," the press release added.
The conflict took place while units of Afghan and Coalition forces were on patrol and came under militants' ambush, using mortars and small-arms fire from a nearby mountainside, the statement added.
It further said that the troops responded by returning small arms fire and by relocating to a better fighting position to call in supporting fire, killing the militants. However, it did not give the exact figure of the rebels' casualties, but added, "No Afghan, Coalition forces or civilian casualties were reported."
Military conflicts have been intensified in the wake of severe battle between militants and international-backed Afghan troops in Arghandab district of southern Kandahar province on last Wednesday during which 56 insurgents were killed and the area had been cleared from Taliban fighters.
Escalating insurgency and gun battles had left more than 8,000 people dead in 2007, the bloody year since the collapse of Taliban regime in late 2001 while so far this year more than 1,500 people including militants, Afghan and international troops as well as civilians have been killed in violent incident in the war-torn nation.
More than 70,000 NATO-led ISAF and the U.S.-led Coalition forces in conjunction with over 150,000 Afghan army and police have been hunting Taliban-link insurgents to ensure stability in the post-Taliban central Asian state.
Source:Xinhua
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