KABUL, Sept 27: Two US soldiers were killed in separate attacks in insurgency-hit provinces in Afghanistan, with two suspected militants also killed in return fire, the US military said on Tuesday.

The deaths on Monday bring to 83 the number of US soldiers killed in the US-led operation in Afghanistan this year, more than 50 of them in hostile fire.

One soldier was killed when “enemy forces” opened fire on US and Afghan troops taking part in a ground assault operation in south-eastern Kandahar province, the US military said.

Another soldier was wounded and in a stable condition in Kandahar hospital, it said in a statement.

“The unit returned fire killing two enemy and wounding a third,” the statement said.

In another attack Monday, a US Marine was killed when a US base near the eastern city of Asadabad, capital of Kunar province, came under attack, it said.

“Coalition forces responded with mortar fire and coalition close air support aircraft. Battle damage assessment is ongoing,” it said.

Kandahar and Kunar are hotbeds of a militant insurgency launched after the fundamentalist Taliban government was toppled from power in a US-led operation in late 2001.—AFP