US-led soldier killed in Afghanistan

A US-led foreign soldier has been killed in southern Afghanistan during an attack by the Taliban militants, NATO says in a statement.

The US-led alliance said in a statement on Monday that the soldier died in an attack by Taliban militants, without revealing the nationality of the soldier or the location of the incident.

The death brings to 508 the number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan so far in 2010.

Foreign troop fatalities in Afghanistan in all of 2009 stood at 521, the highest annual rate since the US-led invasion began in 2001.

Observers expect this year’s casualty rate of the US-led forces will surpass that of 2009, setting a new record in the nine-year-old military intervention.

The rising casualties of foreign forces in Afghanistan have sparked growing opposition to the Afghan war in member states of the NATO military alliance, including the US and Britain.