2 NATO service members killed in south Afghanistan

[October 19, 2010]  KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Two NATO service members were killed in separate attacks in southern Afghanistan Tuesday, the international coalition said.

NATO did not give the nationality of the dead service members or provide exact locations of the attacks. One was killed in an insurgent attack and the other by a roadside bomb.

Violence in southern Afghanistan has risen in recent months as NATO and Afghan forces try to seize control of the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar. It has been the deadliest year for international forces in the nine-year Afghan conflict. At least 46 NATO service members have been killed so far this month, and more than 2,000 have died since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

Two Taliban commanders were also reported killed in separate incidents.

A NATO airstrike killed one Taliban leader in Nad Ali district in southern Helmand province on Monday, the Helmand governor's office said.

NATO troops killed a midlevel Taliban commander Sunday in the Pech River Valley in Kunar province near the Pakistan border, NATO said in a statement. The commander was accused of organizing kidnappings, helping Arab and Pakistani fighters cross the border and attacking NATO convoys, the alliance said.

In southern Kandahar province, the coalition said 10 insurgents were reported killed and several more detained after they fired on a joint NATO and Afghan army patrol on Monday.

The violence follows last month's parliamentary elections -- tainted by allegations of fraud -- and comes amid a diplomatic push to open formal negotiations between the Afghan government and factions of the insurgency.

[Associated Press; By KATHARINE HOURELD]

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