7 U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan
Ten NATO troops, including seven U.S. soldiers, were killed Monday in Afghanistan in the deadliest day for coalition forces so far this year.
Five of the Americans were killed in a roadside bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan, U.S. military officials said. Two U.S. soldiers were killed in the country’s volatile south, one in a bombing and the other by small-arms fire.
No further information was available on the three soldiers from other countries.
According to the website icasualties.org, which keeps track of U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization troop deaths in Afghanistan, 245 international troops have been killed in the country this year, 153 of them American. Last year, 520 international troops were killed in Afghanistan; 316 were Americans.
Also on Monday, an American contractor was killed in a suicide bomb attack on a police training center in Kandahar, where U.S. troops are planning a major offensive this summer to uproot Taliban insurgents from their longtime stronghold.
A militant in a Toyota Corolla sedan filled with explosives tried to breach the center’s perimeter wall, while two other suicide bombers attempted to enter the compound on foot, said Sardar Mohammed Zazai, Kandahar’s police chief.
Afghan security forces fired at the attackers, who blew themselves up before they could get inside, Zazai said. Three police officers were wounded in the attack.
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