KABUL: Three American soldiers died in a complex militant ambush in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday, raising NATO’s two-day August death toll to nine and continuing the bloodiest period of the eight-year war for US and allied troops.
The UN’s representative in Afghanistan, meanwhile, called for peace talks with the Taleban’s top leadership, saying deals with local militant commanders as proposed by Britain’s foreign secretary would not be enough to end the violence.
Kai Eide’s call is another indication that parts of the international community favor reaching out to the top echelons of the radical Islamist movement in their attempts to bring peace, as the conflict widens and Western public opinion wavers in the face of rising death tolls.
Militants in eastern Afghanistan killed the three US troops with gunfire after attacking their convoy with a roadside bomb, the US military said.
The deaths Sunday brought to nine the number of NATO troops killed this month, after six NATO troops died on Saturday. July was the deadliest month for international troops since the 2001 US-led invasion to oust the Taleban government for sheltering Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, with 74 foreign troops, including 43 Americans, killed.
A record 62,000 US troops are now in Afghanistan, more than double the number a year ago. President Barack Obama has increased the US focus on Afghanistan as the Pentagon begins pulling troops out of Iraq. Other NATO countries have about 39,000 troops in Afghanistan.
“We have a lot more troops in country. We have a lot more operations ongoing, and it increases our contact with the enemy, and that unfortunately results in an increase in casualties,” said Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, a US military spokeswoman.
Three American troops and one French soldier died on Saturday, as did two other NATO troops whose nationalities were not immediately released.
