Nine rebels,Oz soldier killed in Afghanistan

Afghan and US-led troops killed nine militants in clashes today,the military said,as Australia announced that one of its soldiers had died in a firefight with Taliban insurgents.

The bloodshed comes after a string of incidents since the weekend that took the lives of nine US and European soldiers,as well as a number of Afghan police and civilians in a Taliban-led insurgency crippling the fragile country.

The Australian soldier was killed yesterday in the southern province of Uruzgan when about 20 Taliban insurgents attacked a convoy with small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades,the Australian military announced.

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Australia has about 1,000 troops in Afghanistan,where there are roughly 75,000 foreign soldiers — many of them Americans — hunting down extremists and helping Afghan forces secure the fractured nation.

Early on Tuesday,Afghan and US-led coalition troops raided a bomb-making cell in the southern province of Kandahar and killed nine militants,a coalition statement said. Three suspects were arrested.

Two other militants were killed shortly before dawn after attacking a police post in the province of Nimroz,another troubled region in southwestern Afghanistan,the interior ministry said.

Modi not to travel to Malaysia for ASEAN summit; precludes meeting with Trump on sidelines

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