Afghan police instructor, two NATO soldiers killed in attacks

Jul 22, 2010, 13:04 GMT

Kabul - An Afghan police instructor was killed by unknown gunmen in southern Afghanistan, while two NATO soldiers died in a separate attack, Afghan and NATO officials said Thursday

The police instructor was shot dead in the Loy Wiyala area of Kandahar city on Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said. An investigation was underway, the statement said.

Separately, two soldiers with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force were killed on Wednesday in an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said Thursday.

The British Ministry of Defence said that the dead soldiers were members of its forces deployed to the southern province of Helmand.

They were killed 'by small arms fire during a cordon operation as they sought to evacuate a casualty' in Lashkargah, the provincial capital, a statement posted on the ministry's website said.

More than 320 British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001. Most of the soldiers were killed in Helmand, where over 9,000 British troops are based.

Nearly 390 international soldiers have been killed in the Afghan conflict so far this year. More than 100 of them were killed in June alone, the bloodiest month for NATO-led troops in the nearly nine-year-war.

Around 140,000 US and NATO troops are currently based in the country.