NATO service member killed in S. Afghanistan

3 January 2012, 09:35 (GMT+04:00)

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A NATO service member was killed in a blast in Afghanistan's restive southern region on Monday, the military alliance confirmed on Tuesday morning, Xinhua reported.

"An International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) service member died following an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in southern Afghanistan, yesterday," the NATO-led ISAF said in a press release.

However, the brief release did not reveal the nationality of the victim, only saying "it is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities."

Forty nine countries are contributing 130,000-strong forces in Afghanistan with over 90,000 of them American mainly stationed in the east and south, followed by 9,500 from UK mainly based in southern Afghanistan.

This is the first casualty of NATO-led troops, reported by the military alliance in 2012.

A total of 566 NATO soldiers, most of them Americans, have been killed in Afghanistan in 2011.