Bomb blast kills NATO soldier in northern Afghanistan

KABUL: A coalition service member was killed in northern Afghanistan on Tuesday, according to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) on Wednesday. Another service member died in eastern Afghanistan.

ISAF said the service member in northern Afghanistan was killed as a result of an improvised explosive device (IED) attack, but no other details were immediately released. The second service member died in the country's east as a result of a "non-battle related" injury.

The nationalities of the service members were not immediately disclosed. "It is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities," an ISAF statement said.

Coalition casualties in Afghanistan have been rising sharply in recent years, with a total coalition death toll of 709 in 2010, making it the deadliest year for international troops since the war began in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

The council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) eventually declared that the attacks of 9/11, which killed nearly 3,000 people from scores of countries, was considered an attack on all NATO nations. The NATO-backed war in Afghanistan aims to defeat the Taliban and other insurgent groups in the country.

So far this year, nearly 50 coalition service members have been killed in Afghanistan. Most troops are killed in the country's south, which is plagued by IED attacks on troops and civilians.

(BNO NEWS )