Bombs kill five foreign troops in Afghanistan

KABUL - Five foreign soldiers were killed Tuesday in Afghanistan in two roadside bombings and a militant attack, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said.

Three ISAF soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan, and a fourth died in a separate roadside bombing, also in eastern Afghanistan, the alliance said. The fifth death occurred in an insurgent attack in the south, it said.

It did not release the nationalities of the dead or details about the attacks.

They followed the deaths of eight ISAF soldiers Monday in southern Afghanistan, also by roadside bombs, the Taliban’s weapon of choice, which has claimed the most fatalities among Western troops.

The recent killings were part of a spate of ISAF casualties this summer.

The independent website iCasualties.org, which tracks foreign military casualties in Afghanistan, said 485 ISAF troops have been killed in Afghanistan this year after 521 died in all of 2009.

The ISAF death toll for August was 75, which followed 88 deaths in July and 103 in June.

Meanwhile, gunmen killed three employees of the Afghan Supreme Court and wounded 31 Tuesday when they opened fire on a mini-bus in Kabul, the Interior Ministry said.

In the eastern province of Kunar, Afghan and ISAF soldiers conducted an assault Monday on the village of Omar, killing 19 militants and capturing five, the ISAF said

Insurgent attacks Monday in the southern province of Helmand killed four civilians, including two children, the ISAF said, while four more civilians were wounded.

In another incident, two Afghan children were killed Monday when insurgents attacked a coalition outpost in the central province of Wardak, it said.

In Helmand’s Garm Ser district, insurgents killed a father and son and wounded two other children, the ISAF said.