Two US soldiers die from Afghan battle injuries

Fri Apr 23, 2010, 6:15 am ET

KABUL (AFP) –

Two US soldiers have died from wounds sustained in a gun battle with Taliban fighters near Afghanistan's capital Kabul, the NATO-led force said Friday.

Five alleged Taliban fighters were also killed in the overnight battle in the province of Logar, a volatile region just south of Kabul, said NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), to which the troopers were assigned.

The two US soldiers were injured during the battle and subsequently died of their wounds, ISAF said in a statement.

The Taliban fighters dead included a "suicide attack commander," it said without giving further details.

Taliban fighters have been widely using suicide bomb attacks against international troops deployed in Afghanistan, and government targets.

The US and NATO currently have 126,000 troops in Afghanistan, with extra deployments to bring the figure to a peak of 150,000 by August as the counter-insurgency strategy escalates.

The latest deaths bring to 168 the number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan this year, according to an AFP tally based on the icasualties.org website which monitors deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Among the dead are 103 Americans.

NATO says 2 US soldiers killed in Afghan firefight

Fri Apr 23, 2010

By Amir Shah, Associated Press Writer –

KABUL –

 NATO and Afghan forces came under heavy fire while searching a compound in eastern Afghanistan, sparking a gunbattle that killed two U.S. soldiers and five Taliban fighters, NATO said Friday.

Among the dead was a Taliban commander with ties to the Haqqani group, a Pakistan-based Afghan Taliban faction, NATO said. Gen. Mustafa Mosseini, chief of police in the province, also said the dead were insurgents.

Despite the official statements, hundreds of residents protested in the Pul-e-Alam district, saying they were not convinced the victims were Taliban fighters.

The casualties came during a joint military operation in the district, where coalition forces had gotten word of Taliban fighters' activity in the compound.

"As the combined force approached the compound they began receiving hostile fire from different points, including heavy machine gun fire," NATO said in a statement.

A search of the compound later turned up automatic rifles, material for making roadside bombs and blasting caps.

Pul-e-Alam is in Logar, a strategic province because it controls southern land routes into Kabul, allowing weapons, explosives and fighters to move into the capital.

The protesters in Pul-e-Alam denounced the military operation, shouting "Death to America!" and "Down with the government," according to Bashir, a village elder who goes by just one name.

Later, protesters blocked a road and ordered a truck driver to flee before stoning the vehicle and burning it, witnesses said. Bashir said the truck was believed to be carrying logistical equipment for coalition troops.

NATO said it had no reports of a truck being burned.

Civilian deaths at the hands of U.S. and other international forces are highly sensitive in Afghanistan. Public outrage over such deaths prompted the top commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal last year to tighten the rules on the use of airstrikes and other weaponry if civilians are at risk.

NATO forces also said Friday that troops detained dozens of suspected Taliban fighters and found weapons caches Thursday night in several areas of Afghanistan, including Ghazni, Khost and Helmand provinces.