Foreign soldiers among dozens killed in Afghanistan

Four foreign soldiers and dozens of Afghans, mostly Taliban militants, have been killed in two days of violence across insurgency-hit Afghanistan, authorities said yesterday. One soldier serving with the US-led coalition was killed in an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan yesterday.

"A coalition service member was killed during an attack on a convoy in eastern Afghanistan... today," the coalition said in a statement, without giving further details, including the exact location of the incident.

The British defence ministry said one of its soldiers with the separate Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed in an explosion on Friday while on patrol near the town of Lashkar Gah in the southern province of Helmand. With the latest deaths a total of four foreign troops have been killed since Friday, and 146 have died since the start of this year, the bloodiest since 2001.

Afghan authorities meanwhile reported that six civilians and dozens of insurgents were killed in other violence across the country, highlighting the threat the country faces as it prepares for presidential polls in August.

In an attack late on Friday, a roadside bomb tore through a car in the western province of Herat, killing six members of a family, the provincial government said.

"We suspect the bomb was planted by the Taliban to target security forces. It struck a civilian car and killed three women and three men," Naqibullah Arween, a spokesman for the local administration, told AFP.

Meanwhile, authorities in southern Afghanistan said 33 militants were killed in an air strike and other operations in insurgency-hit Helmand.

Twenty-six Taliban were killed in an air strike conducted by foreign forces near Lashkar Gah late Friday, said Daud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the local administration there.

"A group of Taliban were targeted from the air by coalition forces. Twenty-six enemy fighters were killed in that strike," Ahmadi told AFP. He said the rebels left their dead comrades behind as they fled the scene. The US-led coalition denied involvement in the incident while ISAF could not immediately provide information.

General Sher Mohammad Zazai, the commander of the Afghan army for southern Afghanistan, said seven other insurgents were killed elsewhere in Helmand the same day.

The general said the rebels were killed during operations recently launched across southern Afghanistan to push back the militants from their strongholds ahead of the polls on August 20.