GI Killed in Afghan Land Mine Explosion

An American soldier stepped on a land mine, becoming the 200th U.S. military member to be killed in and around Afghanistan since the Taliban regime was ousted four years ago, officials said Saturday.

The incident comes amid a major increase in violence by Taliban-led rebels, which has left more than 1,300 people dead since March.

This year has been the deadliest yet for the 21,000-strong U.S.-led coalition force in Afghanistan, with 84 casualties -- 36 of them in three helicopter crashes, including the shooting down of a chopper in June.

The latest American death came Friday during a military patrol in a part of Helmand province that has been racked by rebel violence recently, a military statement said.

U.S. military spokeswoman Sgt. Marina Evans said it was not immediately clear whether the mine had been recently laid and was targeting the patrol, or whether it was one of thousands of mines across the country that remain after a quarter-century of conflict.

The statement quoted Army Brig. Gen. Jack Sterling, a deputy commander of the U.S.-led coalition, as saying, “It’s a sad day any time a comrade dies in this ongoing struggle.”

The soldier’s name was withheld pending notification of the next of kin.

“Two hundred lives is a very big price to pay for a cause that we both share.... We value the sacrifice they made for the people of Afghanistan and the people of the United States,” Jawad Ludin, President Hamid Karzai’s chief of staff, said in an interview last week when asked about the growing toll.

But the Afghan president has been critical of the U.S. military lately, challenging the need for major foreign military operations, saying there was no longer a major terrorist threat emanating from Afghanistan.

His comments came on the heels of legislative elections that came off relatively peacefully despite Taliban threats of violence.

Karzai’s views aren’t shared by many U.S. military commanders, who say that they expect to be battling Taliban rebels well into next year. The troops may get more help from North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces.

An 11,000-strong NATO-led peacekeeping force, responsible for security in Afghanistan’s north and west, is gearing up to expand next year into the southern and eastern regions.