By ANTARA News,
Kabul : Two NATO soldiers were killed in a blast in Afghanistan, the alliance force said Wednesday, as an Afghan official reported that six Arabs were among more than a dozen rebels killed in battle.
The International Security Assistance Force announced late Tuesday that the explosion in the central province of Ghazni had killed one soldier and an interpreter. It said Wednesday a second soldier had died from wounds.
The 40-nation force did not say what had caused the explosion, or give the nationalities of the soldiers involved.
An ambush in the eastern province of Paktika meanwhile wounded two other ISAF soldiers, a spokesman told AFP, without giving details.
Nearly 60 international soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan this year, most of them in hostile action.
Scores of extremist insurgents have also been killed but international forces do not issue death tolls from military action.
A deputy provincial governor said about 14 were killed in a new battle overnight in Zabul province, on the southern border of Ghazni.
The militants had left eight bodies on the battlefield and documents and other items indicated that six were Arab nationals, said Zabul deputy governor Gulab Shah Alikhail.
One Afghan soldier had also died, he said, adding international forces had supported Afghan soldiers on the ground in the remote Khak-e-Afghan district.
The US- or the NATO-led forces said however that they had no information about the operation and the Afghan army could not immediately confirm what had happened.
About 70,000 international soldiers are working alongside thousands of Afghan troops to fight Taliban and other extremists including, authorities say, fighters from a range of Central Asian and Middle East nations.
Battles often take usually in remote areas, making it difficult to verify facts independently.