KABUL: Eight American soldiers and an Afghan civilian were killed Tuesday in bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan, Nato said.

The deaths occurred in what a statement referred to as 'multiple complex IED attacks', referring to improvised explosive devices that have become the scourge of troops fighting a resurgent Taliban.

'Additionally, several service members were wounded in these incidents and were transported to a regional medical facility for treatment,' the statement from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), under Nato, said.

An ISAF spokesman told AFP there were two attacks, one which killed seven soldiers and the civilian, and a second attack that killed one soldier. No other details were available.

The deaths come a day after 14 American troops and narcotics agents were killed in two separate helicopter crashes, in one of the deadliest days for international forces in the nine years of the Afghan war.

The deadlier of the two crashes was in western Badghis province, where seven US troops and three US civilians, agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, were killed. The Nato-led force in Afghanistan said enemy fire was not believed to be the cause.

Tuesday's deaths bring the number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan so far this year to 445, according to an AFP tally based on that kept by the independent website icasualties.org. Of those, 277 were Americans.

IEDs are usually homemade bombs planted by insurgents by roadsides and detonated remotely to specifically target foreign troops on patrol.

Western politicians have said that IEDs are the single biggest killer of foreign troops, of whom there are more than 100,000 under US and Nato command fighting the Taliban.

Southern Afghanistan is the most violent region in the country, the traditional stronghold of the Taliban and where foreign forces, backed by their Afghan counterparts, are concentrated.

Commanders in the country have requested significant reinforcements, saying that the more boots on the ground the greater the chance they have against a Taliban-led insurgency that has intensified in recent months.

London-based think tank the International Centre for Security and Development estimates the Taliban have a permanent presence across 80 percent of the country.

US President Barack Obama is currently considering a request for up to 40,000 extra troops in Afghanistan, a decision he is not expected to make public before a re-run of the presidential election slated for November 7. -AFP