Bomb kills four US troops in Afghanistan
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-14 09:06

A bomb killed four U.S. troops when it hit their armored vehicle Monday in a volatile mountainous region in Afghanistan, the deadliest loss for the U.S. military in the country in four months.

Officials also said five Afghan members of a U.S.-backed militia also were killed in a firefight in the southern province of Helmand.

The violence was a reminder of the dangers thousands of British, Canadian and Dutch troops will face when they take over from U.S. forces in southern Afghanistan by midyear.

The four American troops were patrolling with Afghan soldiers along a valley road in Uruzgan province's Dihrawud district, a hotbed of the insurgency, when they were attacked, U.S. military spokesman Lt. Mike Cody said.

Shortly after the blast, militants opened fire with guns and rocket-propelled grenades. The troops fought back and called in attack helicopters and fighter planes to pound the militants' positions, a military statement said.

An assessment of insurgent casualties is ongoing, the military said.

"This is a sad and tragic day for us all," Brig. Gen. John Sterling, a U.S. commander, said in the statement.

The names of the troops were withheld pending notification of their families.

The bombing raised the death toll of U.S. personnel in the Afghan conflict to 214 since the U.S. invaded the country in late 2001. The blast was the biggest loss of life for the U.S. military since late September, when five troops were killed in a helicopter crash.

Violence spiked across southern and eastern Afghanistan last year as militants stepped up their campaign against the country's U.S.-backed government. Some 1,600 people — including 91 U.S. troops — were killed, more than double the number in 2004.

In addition, the past four months have seen a spate of more than 20 suicide bombings, raising fears of Iraq-style bloodshed.

The five pro-government Afghan militiamen were killed when suspected Taliban rebels ambushed them Sunday, said Gen. Abdulrahman, the provincial police chief, who uses only one name.

Two were killed in the initial attack, while the other three fled the battle but were tracked down and shot dead, he said. Two other militiamen managed to escape and were found unhurt.

The militia force was set up by the provincial government and the U.S. military to tackle drug traffickers and other militants, the commander said. Similar forces have been established in other volatile provinces.

Meanwhile, five Afghan soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb hit their vehicle in eastern Kunar province Monday, Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammed Zahir Azimi said.

Another roadside bomb Monday hurt two Afghan soldiers in the capital, Kabul, while a rocket attack on a security post in northern Baghlan city wounded two other troops, he said.

Fighting in Afghanistan has not let up this winter, unlike in previous years when the violence declined as heavy snowfall made mountain paths unusable by the rebels.

Despite this, U.S. military commanders and President Hamid Karzai say they believe heavy rebel losses in recent battles have reduced the insurgents' ability to carry out major assaults, pointing to the spike in suicide attacks and roadside bombings as evidence.