KANDAHAR, June 27: Two British soldiers died in a battle that also left 12 Taliban dead in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday while two Afghan civilians lost their lives in a suicide blast aimed at a German patrol.
The Afghan and US-led coalition forces meanwhile announced that 32 rebels and four Afghan soldiers were killed in various battles in the south, most of them on Monday as part of the biggest counter-insurgency operation.
The violence came on the eve of a stopover by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who will hold talks with President Hamid Karzai.
The death of the two British soldiers in Helmand province took to 10 the number of coalition soldiers to die in battle across Afghanistan in a week.
Another British soldier was wounded in the battle in restive Sangin district, said British military spokesman Captain Drew Gibson in Helmand.
Twelve Taliban were also killed, the ministry of interior said.
Several rebels were also believed to have been killed, Capt Gibson said.
The suicide blast struck a German patrol with a NATO-led force operating in northern province of Kunduz. An attacker drove an explosives-filled vehicle near the convoy and then detonated it, police said.
The attack struck as President Karzai was visiting Balkh province.—AFP
