KABUL: A soldier with NATO-led forces in eastern Afghanistan was killed in a bomb blast, the alliance said Thursday."An International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) service member was killed by an improvised explosive device in eastern Afghanistan yesterday," the force said in a statement without giving further details.NATO does not release the nationality of their casualties prior to notification of next of kin, leaving the job for their native countries.ISAF numbers more than 58,000 troops from 42 countries. The force works alongside a US-led coalition that is estimated to number around 10,000 although the figure is not public.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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