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KABUL: In a bloody day for Nato troops in Afghanistan, insurgents killed six service members Wednesday, including four who died in a single bomb blast in the volatile south of the country.
One service member was killed in the east in an attack early in the day, and another died in the south in a separate roadside bombing, the weapon of choice for militants in countering a large-scale Nato-Afghan operation in the region.
NATO did not provide nationalities of the dead, or specific locations where the attacks occurred.
2010 has been the deadliest year for international troops in the nine-year Afghan conflict. At least 34 Nato service members have been killed so far this month. More than 2,000 have died since the 2001 US-led invasion.
Troop numbers have been ramped up in the past year to turn the screws on the insurgents. Fighting has intensified and casualties have mounted. The escalating toll has shaken the commitment of many NATO countries, with calls growing to start drawing down troops quickly.
The nearly 150,000 international troops and 220,000 Afghan government security forces, whose recruitment and training has been put on a fast track, are still struggling to gain the upper hand against an estimated 30,000 insurgents.-AP
