U S soldier killed in Afghan attack

KABUL, Apr 21 (Reuters) Gunmen opened fire on a patrol investigating a weapons cache in Afghanistan today killing a U S soldier and wounding an Afghan trooper, the U S military said.

Thirteen American troops have been killed in an intensified Taliban insurgency this year. Nearly 60 Americans were killed last year, the worst for U S forces since they invaded in 2001 to oust the Taliban from power.

The patrol came under small-arms fire in the central province of Uruzgan, the U S military said. It did not say who the gunmen were believed to be but Uruzgan is a known Taliban hotspot.

The wounded Afghan soldier was evacuated to the southern city of Kandahar for treatment, it said.

''We will continue to relentlessly pursue the enemy and help the Afghan National Army bring security to the people of Afghanistan,'' U S military spokesman Thomas Collins said in a statement.

Despite the rising violence, the United States is planning to trim its force of more than 19,000 troops in Afghanistan by several thousand, while NATO partners, including Britain, Canada and the Netherlands, are sending about 6,000 more.

Up to 1,600 Dutch troops will move in to Uruzgan in coming months as a NATO-led peackeeping force expands into the volatile south.

REUTERS OM DS1447