Seven American soldiers were killed in fighting in eastern and southern Afghanistan over the weekend, after several weeks of declining death tolls among NATO forces.
In western Afghanistan, in Herat Province, the police found the bullet-riddled bodies of five missing campaign workers for a female candidate in next month’s parliamentary elections, and another candidate for Parliament was killed, Afghan officials said Sunday.
The American servicemen were killed in five separate attacks, according to statements from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, known as ISAF. On Sunday, an American soldier was killed by a homemade bomb in southern Afghanistan, while another died as a result of an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan, the NATO force said.
Officials Probe Western Afghanistan Shooting Incident
Compiled from International Security Assistance Force Joint Command News Releases
Officials are investigating a shooting incident today in western Afghanistan's Badghis province that left an Afghan National Police member, two International Security Assistance Force servicemembers and a civilian dead.
The cause of the shooting incident is still unclear, ISAF Joint Command officials said, but reports indicate that during a mentoring session between ISAF forces and Afghan National Police, an ANP member fired several rounds and ISAF members returned fire. The ANP member was killed, along with the two ISAF soldiers and the civilian.
With the last full brigade of U.S combat troops now out of Iraq and another 6,000 to leave by the month's end, the mission in Iraq continues with the transition to stability operations, Army Maj. Gen. Stephen R. Lanza, spokesman for U.S. Forces - Iraq, told reporters,
"Our mission still continues," Lanza said on the CBS "Early Show." "We're going to transition from combat operations to stability operations, and we're doing that as we're drawing down our forces right now to 50,000 by 1 September."
Special Report - 08/30/10
