A coalition soldier and his Afghan interpreter were killed in a roadside attack, while 18 militants and five security forces were killed and 30 other rebels were detained in clashes and other incidents in various parts of the country, officials said on Wednesday, according to dpa. Two more US-led coalition soldiers were wounded in the roadside bomb attack, known as improvised explosive device (IED) in the south- eastern province of Khost on Wednesday, US military said in a statement. The statement did not identify the nationalities of the wounded and dead soldiers. The majority of troops serving under coalition banners are Americans. Meanwhile, Taliban claimed to have shot down a US military helicopter in eastern province of Kunar on Wednesday, a statement in rebel website said. However, a US military spokesman in Bagram, the main US military base in Afghanistan, rejected the Taliban's assertion, saying that a civilian chopper hauling logistic for the coalition forces had "an emergency landing due to technical problem". He said that no one was hurt in the "hard landing" and the helicopter continued its mission after fixing the chopper. Five Taliban rebels were killed in an explosion after the vehicle that they were fitting with a car bomb exploded on Wednesday in Panjwayi district of southern Kandahar province, Sayed Agha Saqib, the provincial police chief, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
