Two NATO and three US soldiers were killed in separate attacks Saturday in southern Afghanistan, the same day thousands of US, British and Afghan forces began their biggest-ever operations in the country. One NATO soldier was killed in a roadside bomb attack in the volatile region, while another died of small arms fire from the suspected Taliban in the same region, dpa quoted the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) as saying in a statement. The statement did not disclose the nationalities of the deceased, nor did it provide information about the exact location of Saturday's incidents. Most of the foreign soldiers in the region are from the US, Britain, Canada and the Netherlands. Separately, three US soldiers, also serving under the banner of ISAF forces in the southern region, were killed when a homemade bomb exploded on Saturday, a separate NATO military statement said. NATO did not say if the two troops were taking part in any offensive, but said that the three US service members were not part of the major operations carried out by some 15,000 US-led forces in southern Helmand province. A suicide bomber also hit a NATO-led convoy in Kandahar city, the provincial capital for the province of the same name, on Saturday, Sardar Mohammad Zazai, the provincial police chief said. He could not say if there were any casualties.
