Three NATO troops were killed in a Taliban attack on their patrol in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said today, raising the number of international forces slain in the first week of August to 18.
NATO said the troops' vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb before insurgents opened fire. The NATO forces fired back, but the three were killed.
Attacks killed at least 75 troops from the US and other international military forces in July, the highest death toll for a single month since 2001, according to military reports.
Afghan officials said roadside bombs had killed five policemen and an Afghan guard in the south, the center of the Taliban-led insurgency, where thousands of new US and British forces are trying to secure roads and population centers ahead of the Aug. 20 presidential election.
The insurgents have pledged to disrupt the vote and have dramatically increased their use of roadside bombs against foreign and Afghan forces.
The policemen were killed when their vehicle hit a buried bomb in Kandahar's Arghandab district late Thursday, said Abdul Jabar, the district chief.
Another blast Friday in Kandahar's Zhari district killed an Afghan guard escorting a NATO supply convoy, said Niaz Mohammad Sarhadi, a local official. Four other guards were wounded, he said.
An airstrike in Zabul, another southern province, killed three suspected militants who were planting a bomb on a road Thursday, said Ghulam Jelani Farahi, Zabul's deputy provincial police chief.
AP