[NYTr] Afghanistan: Suicide blast kills French soldier

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

CNN - Sep 21, 2007
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/09/21/afghanistan.suicide.attack/index.html?eref=rss_world

Suicide blast kills French soldier

(CNN) -- A suicide car bomb attack on a military convoy killed a French
soldier serving under NATO's International Security Forces during a
routine patrol in Kabul early Friday, the French Defense Ministry told
CNN.

 Earlier, an ISAF spokesman confirmed a NATO soldier was killed and
eight Afghan civilians were wounded in the bombing in the capital's
western suburbs.

Following the blast, the ministry said a French team was sent to secure
the area around the site and the incident was being assessed.

To the south, a combined team of U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces
killed approximately 40 Taliban militants in southern Helmand province
during a Friday operation, the coalition command press center said.

No troops were hurt or killed during the operation, which aimed at
deterring "hostile activities" in the province's Garmsir district,
according to the coalition.

Soldiers used precision-guided munitions, "killing a large number of
combatants," and coalition spokesman Maj. Christopher Belcher said "one
of the largest caches of weapons found to date" was uncovered in a
building.

 "Several rooms were found filled with small-arms, explosives,
rocket-propelled grenades and large caliber ammunition," Belcher said.

Two buildings and weapons caches were destroyed to "prevent their
future use."

TheNATO-led International Security Assistance has raised its troop
level to almost 40,000 in the face of the Taliban's stepped-up attacks.
The United States has 13,000 soldiers in a separate counterinsurgency
force.

Britain, which has 7,000 troops in the NATO mission, reported that two
of its soldiers died Thursday when their armored vehicle went off the
road in southern Afghanistan. It said no enemy forces were involved.
Eighty-one British military personnel have died in Afghanistan since
November 2001. E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press
contributed to this report.