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10 NATO troopers killed on deadly Afghan day

Published:Tuesday | June 8, 2010 | 12:00 AM
United States Navy sailors push missiles across the flight deck of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf yesterday. US aircraft launching off the Eisenhower, which docked later in Bahrain, have been flying missions in support of coalition forces fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan. - AP photo

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP):

Ten NATO service members, seven of them American, were killed in separate attacks yesterday on the deadliest day of the year for foreign forces in Afghanistan. A United States (US) civilian contractor who trains Afghan police also died in a suicide attack.

The bloodshed comes as insurgents step up bombings and other attacks ahead of a major NATO operation in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar that Washington hopes will turn the tide of the war.

Half the NATO death, five Americans, occurred in a single blast in eastern Afghanistan, US spokesman Colonel Wayne Shanks said without giving further details.

Strike

It was a grim reminder that the insurgents can strike throughout the country, not simply in the south, which has become the main focus of the US campaign.

Two other US service members were killed in separate attacks in the south, one in a bombing and the other by small-arms fire.

NATO said three other service members were killed in attacks in the east and south but gave no further details. The French government announced that one of the victims was a sergeant in the French Foreign Legion who was killed by a rocket in the Kapisa province northeast of Kabul. Three other Legionnaires were wounded.