A US soldier has been killed by hostile fire in a gun battle near the border with Pakistan in eastern Afghanistan.
General Tommy Franks, commander of US military operations in Afghanistan said a member of the US Army special forces was killed by small arms fire near Gardez-Khost, and that no one else was injured.
The soldier is the first member of the American military killed in action in Afghanistan since the US campaign began, although a CIA operative was killed in a prison uprising in November.
On November 25th, CIA operative Johnny "Mike" Spann was killed during a prison uprising in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
Three US special forces troops and five Afghan allies were killed in early December when a B-52 bomber dropped a 2,000-pound satellite-guided bomb too close to their position north of Kandahar.
Two other US service members were killed in a helicopter crash in Pakistan in October while on stand-by during a US commando raid into southern Afghanistan.
Pentagon officials have stressed frequently that although the large-scale fighting in Afghanistan is over, the country remains dangerous for US troops, who now number about 4,000 on the ground.
AP