KABUL: A US soldier was “killed in action” in Afgha­n­istan on Thursday, Nato said, marking the seventh Ame­ri­can service member to die in the war-torn country this year.

The soldier had been assi­gned to Nato’s Resolute Sup­port mission, which trains and assists Afghan security forces.

An investigation was un­­d­er way into the soldier’s dea­th, Nato said, without releasing their identity or details about where the incident took place.

“We mourn and honour the sacrifice of our service member,” General Scott Miller, the top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, said in a statement.

The Taliban also issued a statement claiming it had blown up a US armoured vehicle in Garmser district in the southern province of Helmand, killing the soldiers on board. The incident could not be immediately verified.

Currently, there are about 14,000 US troops in Afghanistan, providing the main component of the Nato mission there to support and train local forces.

More than 2,000 Ameri­can soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since the start of the war in 2001.

Separate bomb blasts kill five civilians

Afghan officials said at least five civilians have been killed in roadside bomb blasts in separate attacks.

Zia Durrani, police spok­es­man in southern Kandahar province, said two women were killed and 16 other people wounded when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb on Thursday afternoon in the Zhari district. He says 14 of the 16 wounded civilians are women.

Attahullah Khogyani, spo­kesman for the governor of eastern Nangarhar province, said a bomb blast near a non-governmental organisation office killed two people and wounded seven others.

In the capital, one person was killed when a sticky bomb attached to a vehicle detonated, according to Nas­rat Rahimi, deputy spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry. He said one was wounded.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2018