Three US-led troops killed in Afghan war

Three soldiers serving with the US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have been killed in two separate bomb explosions in troubled southern Afghanistan.

“Two ISAF service members died following an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in southern Afghanistan today,” Xinhua cited a brief statement released by the Western military contingent on Wednesday.

Another ISAF soldier was killed in a similar incident in southern Afghanistan earlier in the day.

The military force, however, did not provide details of the incidents, and did not announce the name or nationality of the victims.
According to official figures released by the website icasualties.org, a total of 525 foreign troops have lost their lives in war-battered Afghanistan so far this year.

Last year, nonetheless, remains the deadliest year for foreign military casualties with a death toll of 711. The number eclipsed the previous record of 521 set in 2009.

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

Insecurity continues to rise across Afghanistan despite the presence of nearly 150,000 US-led forces in the Asian country.

A United Nations report on Afghanistan issued on September 28 said that the monthly average number of security incidents recorded for the year through the end of August has risen nearly 40 percent.

The report also said civilian casualties, already at record levels in the first six months of the year, rose 5 percent between June and August 2011 compared with the same three-month period in 2010.

Around 130,000 people were displaced by the conflict in the first seven months of the year, up nearly two-thirds from the same period one year earlier.