The number of foreign troops to die this year in Afghanistan has reached 600,by far the highest annual toll in nine years of war despite tentative reconciliation efforts with the Taliban. The milestone was reached after a NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) announcement that a soldier had been killed in an insurgent attack in the east yesterday. Another NATO soldier was killed in a bomb blast in the Taliban heartland of southern Afghanistan on the same day. The toll of 600,according to an AFP tally based on a count kept by the icasualties.org website,compares to 521 killed in all of 2009 in what was previously the deadliest year on record for the forces in Afghanistan. On average,two soldiers die each day. A total of 2,170 foreign soldiers have been killed since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan which overthrew the hardline Islamist Taliban regime. A Taliban-led insurgency has since strengthened each year,but it is most intense in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand. At least 1,348 American troops are among the dead,and the US military provides two-thirds of the 150,000-strong international force in Afghanistan. Foreign and Afghan forces are currently engaged in a major offensive around Kandahar city - capital of the province of the same name - aimed at pushing the insurgents out of the area to bring an end to the war. The surge in military deaths has followed the deployment of about 40,000 extra US and NATO troops under a White House strategy designed to clear major towns and cities of the Taliban and restore confidence in the government.
