Four US-led troops die in Afghanistan

At least four US-led soldiers have been killed in separate incidents across Afghanistan amid a surge in militant attacks against foreign forces.

The militants attacked a Hungarian convoy in the northwest near Mazar-e-Sharif overnight Monday.

Hungary’s Defense Ministry has confirmed the attack and said it left one soldier dead and three others wounded.

One of the wounded soldiers has been reported in critical condition.

Another NATO soldier died in the country’s volatile south, the US-led military alliance said without disclosing the nationality of the soldier or the exact location of the incident.

Meanwhile, two US soldiers have been killed in southeastern Paktia province.

They were killed in a Taliban ambush against a joint patrol unit of US-Afghan forces.

An Afghan official says the clashes erupted after the militants ambushed a joint patrol unit of US-Afghan forces in Paktia province.

Some 455 foreign troops, nearly half of them American, have been killed in Afghanistan this year alone.

The Taliban have been stepping up their attacks against US led troops across Afghanistan over the past four years.

According to official figures, more than 2,000 US-led soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion. Figures released by Afghanistan’s Baakhtar news agency, however, have put the estimated death toll at almost 4,500.