A soldier with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), died from a "gunshot wound" during an operation in southern Afghan province of Helmand Sunday, while 17 suspected militants were killed in separate incidents in the same province, officials said. ISAF forces came under small arms fire in Musa Qala district "following a successful mission," ISAF said in a statement. The nationality of the soldier was not given, however the majority of the ISAF forces stationed in Helmand are British. "The operation continues, and further information will be published as it becomes available," the statement said. In another separate incident, a group of suspected militants attacked a joint convoy of Afghan and NATO forces in the mountainous area of Garmsir district in Helmand late Saturday, provincial spokesman Haji Mohayoddin Khan told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. "The Afghan and British forces responded to the attack with small arms fire and killed three Taliban and injured another one," Khan said, adding that the fighting continued until early Sunday morning.
