Insurgents kill two NATO troops in southern Afghanistan

KABUL: Two coalition service members were killed in southern Afghanistan on Monday, according to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) on Tuesday.

ISAF said both service members were killed as a result of two unrelated improvised explosive device (IED) attacks in southern Afghanistan, but no other details were immediately released.

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

Also in southern Afghanistan, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at the customs house in Kandahar City, the capital of Kandahar Province. One person was killed while five others, including to ISAF service members, were wounded.

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, around 40 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 )