A French soldier and three US troops were killed in insurgent attacks in Afghanistan yesterday, the military said, after deaths in July reportedly reached 75, the highest since 2001.
More than 100,000 international troops are deployed in Afghanistan to help the country's young army fight a Taliban-led insurgency that has intensified ahead of August 20 presidential elections.
Around 230 French, US and Afghan troops came under fire in the Kapisa province, northeast of Kabul, while on an operation with Afghan troops, the French military in Afghanistan said in a statement.
"One French soldier was hit and died of the injury. Immediately the troops returned fire and counter-attacked the insurgents," it said.
"The fighting lasted one-and-a-half hours and two other French soldiers were wounded. The insurgents eventually retreated."
France has lost 29 soldiers in Afghanistan since 2001, it said. It has around 2,900 French troops in Nato's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan under a UN mandate.
The Elysée Palace said French President Nicolas Sarkozy learned of the solider's death with "deep regret".
Sarkozy strongly condemned "once again the cowardly and barbarous tactics of Afghanistan's enemies" and reaffirmed France's determination "to fight alongside the Afghan people against... terrorism", it said in a statement.
Three other ISAF soldiers from the United States were killed in bomb blasts, the alliance force said separately.
"Three International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) service members were killed today after their patrol was struck by two improvised explosive devices in southern Afghanistan," it said.
A US military spokesman in Kabul, chief petty officer Brian Naranjo, said the three had died in the province of Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban movement. He could give no other details.
The United States has 62,000 troops in Afghanistan, the leading contributor to a mainly Western effort against Islamic extremists said to be plotting attacks in the West.
Explosions caused by homemade bombs, called improvised explosive devices by the military, cause around 70 per cent of the casualties to the foreign soldiers.