U.S. Special Forces Soldier Killed in Afghanistan
KABUL (Reuters) - A U.S. special forces soldier has died of wounds suffered in a clash in volatile southern Afghanistan (news - web sites), the U.S. military said on Friday, the third U.S. death in Afghanistan in less than a week.
The clash between U.S.-led special operation forces and their Afghan allies and "a 10- to 15-member anti coalition element" took place on Thursday in an area about 35 miles west of the district of Deh Rawood in the province of Uruzgan.
"The U.S. special operations soldier died from wounds received in combat," the U.S. military said in a statement issued at Bagram, the hub of U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, to the north of Kabul.
It said an "enemy" soldier was also killed in the clash.
Violence in Afghanistan has surged in recent months amid growing attacks by suspected Taliban guerrillas on U.S.-led forces, Afghan soldiers and aid workers. More than 350 people have been killed in attacks since August.
Haji Sayed Mohammad, an Afghan military commander, said on Friday suspected Taliban guerrillas had kidnapped four government officials, including the brother of a district commissioner in the southern province of Zabul, on Thursday night.
Mohammad said the suspected Taliban wanted to kidnap Mullah Mohammad Zafar, commissioner of the Khak Afghan district in southern Afghanistan, but failed because he was not at home at the time.
The victims were taken away into nearby mountains, he said.
About 11,500 U.S.-led forces are hunting remnants of the deposed Taliban, their al Qaeda allies and followers of warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who have declared a 'jihad' or holy war against foreign troops in Afghanistan and U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai's government.
Nearly 40 U.S. soldiers have been killed, mainly in the south and southeast, the strongholds of the former regime, since the launch of a U.S.-led war on terror in Afghanistan in the wake of attacks on September 11, 2001 on the United States.
Two U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites) servicemen were killed at the weekend in the southeastern province of Paktika. (Additional reporting by Saeed Ali Achakzai) |
