Thaindian News

KABUL (BNO NEWS) — Four American service members were killed on Sunday after four separate attacks in eastern and southern Afghanistan, sources and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.

Two service members were killed in eastern Afghanistan as a result of two separate insurgent attacks, ISAF said. Two other service members were killed in southern Afghanistan, one in an insurgent attack and one as a result of an improvised explosive device (IED) attack.

“It is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities,” the alliance said in a statement. BNO News sources, however, confirmed that all four casualties were American.

Coalition casualties in Afghanistan have been rising sharply this year, with around 90 service members being killed in July alone. It was the deadliest month for U.S. forces since the war began on October 7, 2001 in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

On September 11, 2001, two hijacked airliners crashed into both towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. Another airliner crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., while a fourth crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) eventually declared that the attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people from scores of countries, was considered an attack on all NATO nations. The NATO-backed war aims to defeat the Taliban and other insurgent groups in the country.

On Saturday, a British soldier and two American service members were killed after three separate attacks in southern Afghanistan. The Americans died as a result of two insurgent attacks, while the Briton died during an exchange of fire with insurgents in the Nad-e Ali District of Helmand Province.

The British Ministry of Defence said the soldier was from the 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancester’s Regiment, part of Combined Force Nad-e Ali. “He was part of a security cordon that was providing protection to enable a meeting to take place between local elders and ISAF and Afghan Troops when he was killed by small arms fire,” said Lieutenant Colonel James Carr-Smith, a spokesman for Task Force Helmand.

Carr-Smith said the fallen soldier died in the course of his duty and said he would be sorely missed. “His actions will not be forgotten. We will remember him,” the spokesman said.

Also on Saturday, two Australian soldiers from the country’s 1st Mentoring Task Force (MTF1) were seriously injured after an IED detonated near their Bushmaster vehicle in the Baluchi Valley region of Uruzgan Province, also in southern Afghanistan.

The soldiers were part of a larger partnered MTF1 and Afghan National Army patrol at the time of the incident, said Lieutenant Colonel Mark Jennings, Commanding Officer of the 1st Mentoring Task Force. He said the soldiers were treated by their fellow service members at the scene of the incident bfore being evacuated to a nearby ISAF medical facility.

“The team had the site secured, first aid applied and casualty evacuation underway in matter of minutes,” Jennings said. “The process worked extremely well with both soldiers receiving quality medical attention at Tarin Kot less than 50 minutes after the blast occurred.”