Two NATO soldiers, six militants killed in Afghanistan

Aug 12, 2008, 10:07 GMT

Kabul - A Canadian and a Latvian soldier serving in NATO forces were killed in separate attacks in Afghanistan while the Afghan Defence Ministry said Tuesday that its soldiers killed six insurgents and arrested a Pakistani militant.

A Canadian soldier was killed and another wounded Monday when militants attacks them with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms' fire while they were protecting their outpost in the Panjwayi district of the southern province of Kandahar, the Canadian defence ministry said in a statement.

The latest death brought the number of Canadian forces killed in Afghanistan since their deployment there in 2002 to 90.

A Latvian soldier was killed and three were wounded Monday in a roadside bombing in Maimana, the provincial capital of the northern province of Faryab, the military said in a statement.

Afghan police said two Norwegian soldiers were wounded in the attack.

The explosion was triggered by a remote-controlled device and wounded 13 Afghan civilians, police said.

Meanwhile, the Afghan Defence Ministry said in a statement that six militants were killed Monday in a clash in the south-eastern province of Paktika, which has long border with neighboring Pakistan.

A Pakistani militant who is a member of a group headed by Baitullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban leader, was also arrested in the same operation and seven AK-47 rifles were seized, the statement said.

Afghan officials often accuse Pakistani-based militants of crossing the porous border with Afghanistan and staging attacks on Afghan and international forces. Mehsud has reportedly vowed to fight the foreign forces in Afghanistan until their withdrawal.

The violence so far this year has left more than 2,600 people, mostly insurgents, dead.

US-led coalition forces, meanwhile, said in a statement that their soldiers arrested three militants Monday in the Orgun district of Paktika province.

One of the detained militants was working as a courier between foreign fighters and militant networks in Paktika, the statement added.