NATO soldier killed in South Afghan

KABUL, Oct 7: Insurgents attacked a NATO patrol in Afghanistan today, killing a NATO soldier in a southern district that the alliance said had been cleared of Taliban fighters after a two-week offensive last month.

NATO did not not release the nationality of the soldier killed in a bomb and small-arms attack on a patrol in Panjwai district, about 25 km west of the city of Kandahar.

''One of the soldiers was wounded and later died of injuries sustained. One vehicle was also damaged,'' NATO said in a statement.

Violence has surged in Afghanistan this year to its most intense since US-led forces ousted the hardline Taliban government in late 2001, weeks after the September 11 attacks.

Today is the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the offensive that swept the Taliban from power.

NATO forces mounted a two-week offensive in September to clear hundreds of entrenched Taliban from Panjwai district.

The commander of NATO's Afghan force, General David Richards, said the Taliban had probably suffered their greatest single defeat since 2001 in the operation.

A NATO commander said about 1,000 Taliban had been killed.

The Taliban dismissed that statememnt, saying they had suffered far fewer casualties.

More than 140 foreign troops have been killed since January, fanning opposition among the public and opposition parties in some NATO countries to their troops' involvement in Afghanistan.

REUTERS