A soldier in a NATO-led force deployed to help Afghanistan fight a Taliban insurgency was killed in an attack in the volatile south, the alliance said Saturday.
"An International Security Assistance Force ISAF soldier was killed as a result of a direct fire attack in southern Afghanistan yesterday Friday," it said in a statement that gave no further details.
In London, the British Defence Ministry said the victim was a British soldier from the 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. He was killed by gunshot while on foot patrol near Sangin in Helmand Province, the ministry statement said.
A total of 160 British forces personnel have died in Afghanistan since the start of operations in Octoboer 2001, the ministry said.
Southern Afghanistan sees the most fighting between security forces and Taliban and other insurgents and is also the hub of Afghanistan's opium and heroin production, which helps finance the rebels.
The area is the focus of a surge of 17,000 US soldiers pledged by US President Barack Obama in the hope of turning the tide of an insurgency that has picked up steadily since the Taliban regime was removed in 2001.
Friday's death takes to 107 the number of international soldiers to lose their lives in Afghanistan this year, most of them in attacks, according to a toll maintained by thewebsite.
The previous fatality was a 25-year-old US woman killed in a bomb strike north of Kabul on Wednesday.
An ISAF plane made an emergency landing in the southern province of Uruzgan on Friday because of mechanical problems but the force has not said if there were any casualties from the incident.
Koch
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