Geo436.com blog: Nato death toll in Afghanistan this year hits 600

Geo436 KABUL: A Nato soldier was killed in an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, the military alliance said on Monday, bringing the death toll among foreign troops this year to 600.

Nato”S International Security Assistance Force announced the death in a statement, but gave no further details. Another Nato troop was killed in a bomb blast in the Taliban heartland of southern Afghanistan on Sunday.

The latest death brings to 600 the number of foreign soldiers who have died in the Afghan war this year, compared with 521 in all of 2009, according to a tally based on a count kept by the icasualties.org website.

A total of 2,170 Nato soldiers have been killed since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan which overthrew the Taliban regime, including almost 1,350 US troops.

The United States and Nato have more than 150,000 soldiers in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban-led insurgency, which is at its most intense in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand.

International and Afghan forces are currently engaged in a major offensive around Kandahar city — capital of the province of the same name — aimed at pushing the insurgents out of the area to bring an end to the nine-year war.