4 US, British troops die in attacks over 2 days

October 3, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

KABUL (AP) — A suicide bomber struck a U.S. convoy in southern Afghanistan on Friday, killing two American soldiers, and military officials announced the deaths of two other international troopers — one American and one Briton — the day before.

The deadly start to the month followed a drop in U.S. and NATO deaths in September over the previous two months — perhaps because no major offensives were launched as the U.S. takes stock of its strategy in the troubled eight-year war. The Obama administration is debating whether to send more American troops to Afghanistan.

U.S. spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias confirmed the deaths in Friday’s convoy attack but would not specify where they occurred. Afghan police reported a suicide attack west of Kandahar but were uncertain if there were U.S. casualties.

Mathias also said a third American died late Thursday after militants fired rocket-propelled grenades at a patrol in eastern Afghanistan. Several other Americans were wounded, she added.

In London, the British Ministry of Defense announced that a British airman was killed Thursday when a bomb exploded alongside his patrol near Camp Bastion in southern Helmand province, one of the flashpoints of recent fighting.

The four deaths were the first reported this month for the U.S.-led international force, which has been locked in the heaviest combat of the Afghan war.

Nevertheless, the number of American troops killed in the war dropped from a record monthly high of 51 in August to 37 in September, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press from official statements.

U.S. death tolls had been rising steadily since the spring after President Barack Obama’s decision to send 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan to curb the growing Taliban-led insurgency. American deaths went from 12 in May to 24 in June and 44 in July.

The September death toll for the overall international force, including Americans, stood at 65, compared with 73 in August.

At the same time, however, Afghan civilian deaths rose from 169 in August to 202 in September, according to AP figures compiled from police and other Afghan officials. The increase may have been a result of stepped-up Taliban attacks on civilian traffic along major highways, including a bomb blast Tuesday that killed 30 bus passengers west of Kandahar.