An American soldier has been killed in combat in Afghanistan - the first US serviceman to die from hostile fire since the campaign there began last October.
The special forces soldier, identified as Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Ross Chapman, 31, of San Antonio, Texas, was killed near the eastern town of Khost in what US Defense Department sources described as an "ambush".
The only other American combat fatality of the campaign in Afghanistan so far was another CIA agent, who was killed in a prison uprising in November.
A CIA agent was also wounded in Friday's exchange of fire near the town of Gardez in eastern Afghanistan, according to a US official in Washington.
"I guess I would say that I am, indeed, pleased with the progress that has been made over the last 90 days," Army Gen. Tommy Franks, head of the U.S. Central Command, told reporters at a briefing in Tampa.
"But I would also say that much very dangerous work remains to be done," he added, stressing that some Taliban fighters and al Qaeda cells of bin Laden remained to be rooted out in a rugged country torn by decades of war.
Gen. Franks said the death of the soldier, part of a US team co-operating with tribal elements, was a reminder of the danger still facing American forces despite the overthrow of the Taliban and the capture of major cities.