French and US soldiers among six killed in Afghanistan

January 11, 2010 by Infowars Ireland

news.bbc.co.uk

Six international soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, Nato officials said, making Monday the deadliest day for foreign troops there in two months.

The dead include three Americans killed in southern Afghanistan and one French soldier north-east of Kabul, Nato said.

The nationalities of the other two have not yet been released.

The deaths came as a poll commissioned by the BBC and others showed most Afghans are increasingly upbeat about the state of their country.

Of more than 1,500 Afghans questioned, 70% said they believed Afghanistan was going in the right direction – a big jump from 40% a year ago.

Deadly patrols

The Americans died in a clash with militants during an “operational patrol” in southern Afghanistan, US military spokesman Col Wayne Shanks said.

France has said one of its soldiers was killed and another wounded while patrolling with Afghan troops in Alasay, a valley largely under militant control.

“A non-commissioned officer paid with his life for the commitment of France to the peace and security of the Afghan people, and an officer was very gravely wounded,” a statement from President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office said.

Nato said one other soldier had died in eastern Afghanistan and another in the south – but did not give their nationalities.

The BBC’s Mark Dummett says the latest casualties bring the death toll for foreign troops in Afghanistan this year to 15.

It suggests that 2010 will be just as bloody – if not more so – than last year, which was the deadliest for international forces since the US-led invasion in 2001.

The high death toll is partly because insurgents have changed their tactics and are using more powerful bombs, our correspondent says.

But it is also because foreign troop numbers are rising, he adds.

President Barack Obama announced last month that an additional 30,000 US troops would be deployed quickly in Afghanistan to fight the insurgency.

The reinforcements will take the total number of US troops in Afghanistan to more than 100,000. Read more…