A supply helicopter, contracted by NATO
forces was damaged in the eastern Konar province while an ISAF soldier was
killed in southern Zabul province, officials said on Friday.
A statement issued by the International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF), said
the helicopter was damaged while making an emergency landing in eastern Konar
Province, reported dpa.
The aircraft was forced to make the emergency landing at an ISAF base due to
mechanical problems, the ISAF statement said, adding, "No one was injured
during the emergency landing".
Another statement issued by NATO forces on Friday said one ISAF soldier was
killed during a "direct fire engagement" with Taliban insurgents in
the Qalat district of southern Zabul province on Friday.
The statement did not give the nationality of the soldier.
Meanwhile, a suicide bomber targeted a military forces convoy in eastern
Nangarhar province, provincial police said.
The suicide car bomb in the eastern province of Nangarhar killed only the
bomber, said Abdul Ghafoor, a spokesman for Nangarhar police.
The attack occurred in the Bareekab area on the Jalalabad-Torkham highway, the
spokesman said without giving details of casualties among foreign troops or
their nationalities. Most foreign soldiers stationed in the province are US.
It was the second suicide attack on foreign troops in Nangarhar this month. The
first killed two Americans and wounded five civilians.
Meanwhile, a military statement on Friday said approximately 17 militants were
killed when they attacked a joint Afghan and Coalition force reconnaissance
patrol in the Tarin Kowt District, in Uruzgan province on Thursday.
The combined patrol confirmed the positive identification of the militant's position
and requested support from coalition aircraft, the statement said, adding,
"Coalition forces directed one precision air-strike followed by
air-to-ground gunfire on the positively identified enemy positions".
"The airstrike triggered a secondary explosion in a compound and the
remnants of bomb-making materials were recovered from the site," it said.
In another development, a Romanian soldier was killed Friday and three soldiers
were injured while on patrol in Afghanistan.
The soldiers were travelling in four amphibious vehicles on the road between Kabul and Qualat when they were attacked by insurgents using light weapons and mortar
shells, 50 kilometres from Qualat.
A military statement issued from the US airbase at Bagram outside Kabul said coalition forces had searched several compounds Thursday in the Zurmat district
while targeting two militant leaders suspected of facilitating foreign fighter
attacks on Afghan and coalition forces.
The coalition forces were engaged by armed militants from one of the compounds,
the statement said. The force responded with small- arms fire and airstrikes,
killing several militants and a woman who was with the attacking militants in
the building.
"One militant detonated a suicide-vest explosion in the compound, killing
only himself," the statement said.
In another development, Afghan border security forces arrested two militants in
a vehicle packed with explosives, also in Paktia.
A statement issued by the Afghan Interior Ministry said remote- controlled
bombs and other explosives material were recovered from the detained militants.