ABC News online reports:
Four US soldiers were killed in action in Afghanistan as violence erupted in at least three districts in the south of the country, Afghan and US officials said on Sunday.In the deadliest incident for the US military since the latest operation to hunt down Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders began more than two months ago, four American servicemen were killed in troubled Zabul province on Saturday.
The incident follows a bloody week in which American planes bombed two areas of the south after soldiers were attacked by militants.
"Four US service members assigned to the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force Afghanistan were killed in action today [Saturday] here in southern Afghanistan," US Central Command said in a statement."Names will not be released until notification of next of kin is complete," the statement said.
No further details were immediately available. It was the deadliest attack on US soldiers since Operation Mountain Storm aimed at hunting and capturing senior militants began on March 7.
Zabul province, 350 kilometres south-west of the Afghan capital Kabul, borders the porous frontier with Pakistan and is believed to be a hiding place of Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives.
The deaths bring to 127 the number of coalition soldiers, marines, air force members and intelligence agents killed in Afghanistan since the launch of US-led operations to topple the Taliban regime in late 2001, although most deaths have not been in combat.
More than two years after the fall of the Taliban, southern Afghanistan remains a trouble spot with insurgents continuing to launch attacks on US and Afghan troops and aid workers.
In another clash in the south of the country, three suspected Taliban were wounded during an operation on Saturday in southern Helmand province involving Afghan soldiers, an Afghan defence ministry spokesman said.
"In a military operation in Gereshk district of Helmand province three enemy forces were injured and 10 of them arrested," General Zahir Azimi told a press briefing in Kabul.
And in Musa Qala district of Helmand, about 50 kilometres north of Gereshk, one militant and four pro-government fighters were killed in fighting that erupted when a government office was attacked, an interior ministry spokesman said.
Eleven soldiers and four insurgents were also wounded when about 40 "enemies of peace and stability in Afghanistan" attacked the district office, spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said.
"They left behind AK-47s [assault rifles], rocket-propelled grenades and some heavy rockets," he said.
US casualties have climbed as a result of guerrilla attacks by suspected Taliban fighters in the south. With the latest deaths, six US soldiers have been killed in action this month.
-- AFP