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2009 deadliest year for foreign troops in Afghanistan
Agence France Presse - August 26, 2009
The number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year has surpassed that for all of 2008 with the deaths of four US military personnel in a bomb blast in the country's south.
The soldiers operating under NATO's International Security Assistance Force were killed on Tuesday by an improvised bomb, the Taliban's weapon of choice, the alliance force said in a statement.
The latest casualties bring to 63 the number of foreign soldiers who have died in Afghanistan this month and to 295 the death toll since January, making this the deadliest year for foreign troops since their 2001 arrival.
The force said did not provide the exact location of the fatal attack.
Quoting Navy Chief Petty Officer Brian Naranjo, the statement said the soldiers were Americans. They were on patrol "in one of the most violent areas of Afghanistan".
The international force, now numbering more than 100,000 troops, lost 294 soldiers in 2008. Of those killed so far this year, 172 were Americans compared to 155 who died in Afghanistan last year.
The rest of the dead soldiers were from other nations contributing to efforts to wipe out the worsening Taliban insurgency in the country.
Britain, Canada and the Netherlands are the biggest troop contributors to the international effort, after the US.
The Taliban, in power between 1996 and 2001, have stepped up their attacks each year, prompting President Barack Obama's administration to send additional troops in an effort to defeat the Islamist rebels.
News of the latest troop deaths came after the government said four Afghan civilians were killed and five injured in a roadside bomb attack in the country's east.
The civilians died when a bomb, similar to that which killed the US troops and also planted by Taliban-linked rebels, struck their vehicle in Paktia province, bordering Pakistan. The spike in troop deaths in Afghanistan has renewed debate in Britain and the US about their continuing role in the conflict.
Most of the deaths are caused by roadside bombs, which also claim a high number of civilian lives.
The violence comes as Afghanistan awaits the results from last week's presidential elections, only the second in its history.
Early results released on Tuesday show President Hamid Karzai only two per cent ahead of his nearest rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah. The final results are not due before September 3.
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