KABUL: The deaths of eight US soldiers in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday was the deadliest single incident involving foreign forces in more than a year and the worst loss of coalition life since 2005.
A total of 394 foreign troops, including 236 Americans, have now died this year, according to an AFP toll based on a tally of coalition deaths tracked by the independent website icasualties.org.
Here are some of the bloodiest incidents involving international forces in the country since the US-led military operation to oust the Taliban from power began in October 2001.
--2005--
- June 28: 16 US military personnel, including eight Navy Seals, die when a Taliban rocket-propelled grenade hits their Chinook helicopter, which crashes near Asadabad, in Kunar province, 150 kilometres (93 miles) east of Kabul.
--2007--
- April 8: Six Canadian soldiers are killed when a bomb explodes near their vehicle in southern Afghanistan.
- May 31: A Chinook transport helicopter crashes in southern Helmand province. Five US soldiers are killed alongside one Canadian and a Briton.
- July 4: Six Canadian soldiers and their Afghan interpreter are killed when a boobytrapped device hits their vehicle in the south.
- July 23: Four NATO soldiers are killed by an improvised explosive device in the south. Two others, including one Norwegian, are killed in two separate incidents in the south and east.
- November 10: Six NATO soldiers and two Afghan troops are killed in a Taliban ambush in northeast Afghanistan.
--2008--
- July 13: Nine US soldiers are killed in violent clashes in eastern Kunar province.
- August 18: 10 French soldiers are killed and 21 others injured in a Taliban ambush, about 50 kilometres from Kabul.
--2009--
- September 17: Six Italian troops are killed and three others injured in a suicide bomb attack in Kabul.
- October 3: Eight US soldiers and two Afghan troops are killed in fierce fighting against hundreds of militants in eastern Nuristan province, bordering Pakistani tribal areas that are havens for Al-Qaeda and Taliban sympathisers.
