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Kabul: A British soldier serving with the Nato force in Afghanistan died in an explosion that wounded two other troops, the alliance's International Security Assistance Force said on Saturday.
The soldier was killed after the vehicle he was travelling in hit a mine during a routine patrol near southern Helmand province's Naw Zad district on Friday, British Lieutenant Colonel Robin Matthews said.
Two other British soldiers were wounded in the explosion, Matthews said without further detail.
Similar incidents have been blamed on the Taliban who often use roadside bombs in their ongoing insurgency against the Western-backed government and foreign troop presence in the country.
The soldiers were serving with the 40-country ISAF force which earlier confirmed the death but not the soldier's nationality. Helmand, the main source of Afghanistan's opium output, is in the grip of a Taliban-insurgency launched after it was toppled from government in a US-led invasion in late 2001.
Most ISAF soldiers in Helmand are British, and were joined by US Marines last week in a push to remove the Taliban from around southern Garmser district. The latest fatality takes to 48 the number of international soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year, most while fighting the Taliban.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon is considering sending up to 7,000 more US troops to Afghanistan next year to make up for a shortfall in contributions from Nato allies, The New York Times reported yesterday.
Citing unnamed Bush administration officials, The Times said the push could drive US forces in Afghanistan to some 40,000, the highest level since the United States invaded the country in 2001 and toppled the Taliban government. One official said it would likely result in "the re-Americanisation" of the war.
The increase would drive US troops presence from about half to two-third of foreign troops in Afghanistan, and would require a reduction in troops levels in Iraq by at least a modest amount, the newspaper said. Planning for the increase began in recent weeks, it said. "There are simply going to be more American forces than we've ever had there," The Times quoted a senior official as saying.
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