September 18, 2008	Thursday	Ramazan 17, 1429

KABUL, Sept 17: Four soldiers serving in the US-led coalition in Afghanistan were killed when their vehicle struck a roadside bomb on Wednesday in the east of the country, the force said.

An Afghan national was also killed by the improvised device in the province of Paktia, which came as US Defence Secretary Robert Gates was in Afghanistan for talks with President Hamid Karzai.

The nationality of the soldiers was not given, but most of the troops who are deployed in that part of the country are US.

“Four coalition service members and one Afghan national were killed in an IED (improvised explosive device) strike in eastern Afghanistan this morning,” the force said in a statement.

A coalition military spokesman contacted by AFP was unable to give details of the Afghan national.

The spokesman said a roadside bomb struck the military vehicle.

It was not immediately confirmed who was behind the bomb blast but Taliban militants waging an increasingly bloody insurgency have been using improvised bombs against foreign troops based here.

With the latest deaths, a total of 210 international soldiers have now been killed in insurgency-related unrest in Afghanistan this year alone, according to AFP tally. Around 220 died last year.—AFP