NATO soldier killed in southern Afghanistan

KABUL, Saturday, (AFP)

A soldier with the NATO-led deployment confronting Taliban and other extremists in southern Afghanistan was killed and two hurt in a bomb strike on Saturday, the force said.

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) gave few details about the incident, which it said was caused by an improvised explosive device (IED).

Also, it did not release the nationalities of the soldiers involved. Most of the soldiers in southern Afghanistan are Australian, British, Canadian, Dutch and US nationals.

The new death takes to 192 the number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year, around the same toll for the whole of 2006. Most of them have been killed in hostile action, with a Taliban-led insurgency intensifying.

A soldier serving with the separate US-led coalition was killed with an Afghan trooper in the southern province of Uruzgan on Friday, the force said late Friday.

The nationality of the foreign soldier has not been announced.

And an Australian soldier was seriously wounded Friday while trying to defuse an IED, the Australian Department of Defence said on its website.