Two NATO Soldiers Killed in Eastern Afghanistan

[Flaneur]

Source: Reuters

Khost, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Two NATO soldiers were killed Tuesday when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a military base in Afghanistan, the alliance and local government sources said.

NATO spokesman Lieutenant Commander Iain Baxter confirmed two alliance soldiers had been killed in a suicide attack in Khost but was unable to give further details about the incident or disclose the soldier's nationalities.

A local government source, who declined to be named, told Reuters that a man wearing a suicide vest detonated the device outside a U.S. military base also used by the Afghan National Border Police in the Ali Sher district of Khost Province, close to Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan.

A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahid, said the attacker was a member of the Islamist group and had infiltrated the border police.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6283NH20100309

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Nationalities not given, but this was a US base and this occurred in an area with lots of US troops.

[Flaneur]

1. Ho-hum, who gives a shit? Nobody, I guess.

Well, carry on, then.

[Robb]

2. They were Afghan nationals.

DU has an odd sense of what's notable these days, I agree.

[Flaneur]

3. Hmmm, this report says "international service members"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100309/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

KHOST, Afghanistan – A suicide attack Tuesday at a joint NATO-Afghan base in eastern Afghanistan killed two international service members and wounded several others, the military alliance said.

The attack in remote Khost province near the Pakistan border was on a compound used by both international forces and the Afghan Border Police, NATO said.

Residents in the province's Ali Shir district said they heard a large blast at the base after dark.

A NATO statement later said that two international troops were killed and several others wounded. It gave no further details, but said an investigation was under way.

The suicide assault in the east came hours after visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates toured an area of southern Afghanistan where international forces recently drove out Taliban insurgents.