US and UK Troops Killed Were the First Casualties in 2010

Kabul, Jan. 04, 10 (Hamsayeh.Net) - US and UK forces in Afghanistan experienced their first casualties in 2010 yesterday when two separate IED explosions took place in southern Afghanistan.

 

In the first explosion an improvised explosive device was detonated in Panjwai district of southern Kandahar on Sunday killing four US troops while they were travelling in a military vehicle in the area. US military confirmed the explosion and the subsequent deaths of soldiers, officials said next-of-kin were being notified. In the second explosion, a British soldier from 1^st battalion was killed when patrolling the Nad Ali area in Hemand province on foot, Sunday afternoon.

 

More and more coalition troops are getting killed soon after top Taliban commanders announced their own surge of fighters in response to the US and NATO troop surge announcements before the New Year. In 2009 the number of US personnel to die in Afghanistan was more than double the number of casualties in the previous year.

 

 IED’s are improvised explosive devices that both Taliban in Afghanistan and militants in Iraq deploy effectively against foreign troops’ presence in their countries. According to a senior NATO intelligence official in Afghanistan there were only 81 IED’s used during 2003, the number then dramatically increasing to 7,200 for 2009.

 

NATO and US have nearly 250,000 military as well as private security personnel in Afghanistan chasing phantom enemies in and around the Hindu Kush Mountains between Pakistan and Afghanistan, apparently without much success so far.

 

A senior NATO official already warned that 2010 would be the year to find out whether foreign forces could stay in Afghanistan or leave before it becomes too late.