KABUL, Nov 11 (Agencies): Militants ambushed and killed six US troops walking in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan - the most lethal attack in a year that has been the deadliest for the US military here since the 2001 invasion. The number of US deaths in Afghanistan this year mirror the record toll in Iraq. Both conflicts have seen an increase in troop levels this year that has put more soldiers in harm's way, including those killed Friday while returning from a meeting with village elders in Nuristan province. Militants wielding rocket propelled grenades killed the six Americans and three Afghan soldiers. Eight US troops were wounded.
"They were attacked from several enemy positions at the same time," Lt. Col. David Accetta, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force and the US military, said Saturday. "It was a complex ambush."
The six deaths brings the number of US troops killed in Afghanistan this year to at least 101, according to an Associated Press count, surpassing the 93 troops killed in 2005. About 87 died last year. The toll echoes the situation in Iraq, where US military deaths this year surpassed 850, also a record.
Launched in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the war in Afghanistan quickly ousted al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden and his Taliban protectors and appeared to have been a swift military victory.
But insurgent attacks - advanced ambushes and suicide and roadside bombs - have risen sharply the last two years, and analysts say the counterinsurgency battle US and NATO forces now face will take a decade or more to win.
Deaths mark grim Afghan, Iraq milestones
FE Team | Published: November 12, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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