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KABUL: Seven soldiers from the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed in a bombing in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, the military said.
“Seven International Security Assistance Force service members died following an improvised explosive device attack in southern Afghanistan today,” ISAF said in a statement.
It did not say which country they were from, where they were killed or give further details of the incident, in line with policy.
However, a coalition official speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity said the deaths occurred in Shorabak district, Kandahar province, and came in two successive blasts in the same location.
Local border police commander Tafseer Khan Khogyani added that the attack also killed two Afghan policemen and happened as coalition and Afghan forces were on patrol around 20 kilometres from Afghanistan's border with Pakistan.
“As they approached a container, explosives that had been placed inside went off, causing a huge explosion,” he said.
Responsibility for the blast was claimed by a spokesman for the Taliban.
The bombing caused ISAF's highest death toll in a single incident since April 27, when nine Americans, eight troops and a contractor, were killed by an Afghan officer who opened fire at a Kabul military training centre.
Earlier Thursday, a Nato helicopter crashed in a mountainous area of eastern Afghanistan, killing one soldier.
There are around 130,000 ISAF service personnel in the war-torn country, around 90,000 of whom are from the United States.
