Four US troops were killed in two separate incidents in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, the US military said today.
Two were killed and a third died of wounds sustained from a roadside bomb attack, spokeswoman captain Elizabeth Mathias said. A fourth died of wounds sustained during an insurgent attack, she said. Earlier, the US military had reported five service members killed in three attacks in the south, but Ms Mathias said this was not correct.
An interpreter working with US forces was also killed in an an attack in the east of the country on Thursday, she said.
The eight-year-old war in Afghanistan has been in its deadliest phase for foreign troops since July, when US and British forces launched the biggest offensives of the war.
There are now more than 100,000 Western troops in Afghanistan, about two-thirds of them American.
Their commander, US army general Stanley McChrystal, is expected to ask for thousands more in a request he will deliver to Washington this week. He has said that without additional forces, his mission is likely to fail.
Reuters