US soldier dies in Afghanistan: NATO

In a brief statement, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the soldier had died on Saturday in eastern Afghanistan, an increasingly volatile theatre of the war against the anti-government militants.

"An ISAF service member from the United States died of wounds yesterday as a result of an engagement with insurgents in eastern Afghanistan," it said.

It gave no other details.

Around 113,000 international service men and women are deployed to Afghanistan under US and NATO command for the fight against the Islamist militants, now in its ninth year.

Another 40,000 troops are being sent to the country and are due to arrive by August, military officials have said.

The decision to send more foreign soldiers is part of a renewed strategy for bringing the fight to the Taliban while backing up battlefield progress with aid and development efforts to win over local populations.

The increased forces, however, mean more engagements and inevitably a higher rate of deaths among foreign troops, the officials say.

This has become evident in recent months, as the total death toll among international soldiers in 2009 was 520, compared with 295 for the year before.

According to an AFP tally based on that kept by the independent website icasualties.org, 28 foreign soldiers have died in Afghanistan so far in 2010.

Civilian casualties have also become a central issue in the hostilities, with the Garmser district of southern Helmand province a focal point in recent weeks as the Taliban whips up hostility and ISAF and Afghan forces retaliate.

ISAF said a civilian died after being shot by its troops in the early hours of Sunday morning when they fired on a large vehicle travelling at high speed without headlights towards one of its convoys.

"After firing three to five rounds into the grille of the vehicle, it stopped," ISAF said in a statement.

"The initial assessment determined one civilian received a gunshot wound to the chest... The man died of his wounds this morning. None of the other five passengers suffered any injuries," it said.

Garmser has been the scene of violence for the better part of a week, after demonstrations that government investigators said were whipped up by Taliban rumours that foreign troops had desecrated a copy of the Koran during an operation.

Seven people were killed on Tuesday during a protest march that turned violent when shoots were fired from among a crowd of hundreds of people, officials said.

The following day, another five Afghan civilians were shot and wounded outside a military base during a demonstration that appeared to be related to the Tuesday incident.

The United Nations said in a report released last week that civilians killed in the Afghan war jumped last year to 2,412, making 2009 the deadliest year for ordinary Afghans since the US-led invasion. In 2008, 2,118 civilians were killed.

The majority, or 67 percent of the dead, were killed in Taliban attacks, the UN said.

Among the Taliban's increasingly effective arsenal are roadside bombs, which military intelligence officials say claim up to 90 percent of foreign troops casualties, as well as Afghan security forces and civilians.

Afghanistan's defence ministry said two Afghan soliders were killed on Saturday in the Sangin district of Helmand by a roadside bomb.

In Helmand's Marjah district, an air strike was called in during a fire fight between militants and Afghan troops, also on Saturday, the ministry said in a separate statement, resulting in the deaths of five "terrorists".

And in southern Paktika province four militants were killed and three wounded in a NATO air strike on Saturday, the spokesman for the provincial governor, Mukhlis Afghan, told AFP.