By Xinhua,
Kabul : Three soldiers with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed by roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan while the U.S.-led Coaltion forces eliminated two armed militants in eastern Paktika province on Friday, said statements of the alliance issued here on Saturday.
“Three ISAF soldiers were killed in an IED strike Friday morning in southern Afghanistan,” the statement said, but it did not give any further information.
However, three Canadian soldiers, according to media reports, were killed Friday morning while clearing a highway of explosives and their deaths bring the number of Canadian troops killed in the Afghan war to 100.
Around 2,500 Canadian troops have been deployed in the unrest southern Afghan province of Kandahar fighting militants and helping with reconstruction.
In another incident, the Coalition forces killed two armed militants and detained five suspected militants during an operation targeting the Taliban network in Paktika province on Friday, said a Coalition statement.
Coalition forces searched a compound in Ziruk district targeting a local Taliban commander suspected of foreign fighter and weapons facilitation, it said.
“During the operation, Coalition forces encountered two militants who attempted to engage the force. Coalition forces responded with small-arms fire and killed them,” it added.
Spiraling conflicts and Taliban-linked insurgency have claimed more than 5,000 people, mostly militants, so far this year despite over 70,000-strong international troops stationed in strife-torn Afghanistan.