US-led soldier killed in Afghanistan

A bomb has killed a US-led soldier in southern Afghanistan, bringing this year’s total number of US-led troops killed in the country to 223.

A statement issued on Monday by NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said that the soldier, whose nationality was not revealed, died in a blast by an improvised explosive device (IED) on Sunday in Afghanistan’s volatile south, where the Taliban are concentrated, AFP reported.

The total number of US-led soldiers killed last year in Afghanistan reached 520.

Attacks against some 130,000 foreign troops in the war-torn country have been recently on the rise. The US, meanwhile, plans to deploy 30,000 extra troops by August in an effort to bring the increasing militancy under control.

On Friday, the number of US soldiers killed in Afghanistan reached a milestone of 1,000.

This is while the US and its allied forces plan to carry out a military operation in the Taliban heartland of Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan.