US defence chief arrives in Kabul; two NATO soldiers killed

Sep 2, 2010, 15:01 GMT

Kabul - US Defence Secretary Roberts Gates arrived in Kabul Thursday for talks as two NATO soldiers were killed in two separate attacks in Afghanistan, officials said.

Gates was scheduled to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, US General David Petraeus, a US military spokesman said.

The Pentagon chief came on the same day that one NATO soldier was killed in an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan and another died in a similar attack in the south.

NATO did not disclose their nationalities, but a US military official said both were Americans.

The alliance also said Afghan and NATO forces killed 25 militants Thursday in two separate airstrikes in southern and eastern Afghanistan.

At least 20 of those insurgents were killed after they attacked an outpost in the Bermal district of the south-eastern province of Paktika, NATO said.

Five more insurgents were killed in another airstrike as they were planting a mine on a roadside in the Andar district of Ghanzi province, it said.

Taliban-led attacks are on the rise as thousands of fresh US forces have joined the Afghan war this year.

The military surge is part of a plan by US President Barak Obama to turn the tide against the Taliban before the US military starts to draw down its forces in July.