Three NATO troops, six militiamen killed in Afghanistan
By DPA, IANSFriday, October 8, 2010
KABUL - Three NATO soldiers were killed Friday in insurgent attacks in southern Afghanistan, while six pro-government militiamen were killed in a NATO airstrike in the country’s south-east, officials said.
Two of the soldiers died in separate roadside bombs in the volatile southern region, where the third was killed in an insurgent attack, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in statements.
The military did not reveal nationalities of the deceased. Most of the soldiers stationed in the southern provinces are from the US, Britain and Canada.
More than 560 international troops have been killed in the Afghan conflict so far in 2010, the bloodiest year since the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001.
Meanwhile, six Afghan pro-government militiamen were killed Friday by NATO forces after they opened fire on alliance helicopters patrolling in Khost province, Yaqoub Khan, a police official said.
Local villagers took the bodies to the governor’s office in the provincial capital, also called Khost, to protest the killing, Khan said.
ISAF said that its air forces killed five armed men.
“The incident occurred when an air weapons (team) was patrolling in the Nadir Shar Kot district of Khost province,” ISAF said in a statement.
“The ISAF helicopters identified a group of individuals with weapons moving from a previously identified enemy position near Sinzai Kalay village,” it added.
