Five US-led troops killed in Afghanistan

Five US-led troops have been killed in Afghanistan over the past 24 hours as the Taliban step up their attacks against foreign forces in the country.

Two NATO soldiers died in separate militant attacks in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, the US-led military alliance said without disclosing the nationality of the soldiers or the exact location of the incident.

Three soldiers were killed and two others were injured in Uruzgan Province also on Friday.

The latest deaths bring the number of US-led foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan so far this year to 446.

The developments come as the security situation keeps deteriorating in Afghanistan with US-led forces being killed by Taliban militants on a near-daily basis.

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

The increasing number of troop casualties in Afghanistan has caused widespread anger in the US and other NATO member states, undermining public support for the continuation of the Afghan war.