Seven Americans, two Australians and one French soldier were killed on Monday, one of the deadliest days in the nine-year war to crush the hardline Islamist Taliban. Two more soldiers were killed on Tuesday.

According to an AFP tally, based on a count kept by the independent website icasualties.org, 247 foreign soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year. Last year was the deadliest yet with 520 killed.

Here are some of the bloodiest incidents involving international forces in the country since the US-led military operation to oust the Taliban from power began in October 2001.

--2005--

- June 28: 16 US military personnel, including eight Navy Seals, die when a Taliban rocket-propelled grenade hits their Chinook helicopter in Kunar province, 150 kilometres (90 miles) east of Kabul.

--2007--

- April 8: Six Canadian soldiers are killed when a bomb explodes near their vehicle in southern Afghanistan.

- May 31: Seven soldiers, including five from the US, are killed when a military transport helicopter crashes in Helmand province after a rocket attack.

- July 4: Six Canadian soldiers and their Afghan interpreter are killed when a booby-trapped device hits their vehicle in the south.

- July 23: Four NATO soldiers are killed by an improvised explosive device in the south. Two others, including one Norwegian, are killed in two separate incidents in the south and east.

- November 10: Six NATO soldiers and two Afghan troops are killed in a Taliban ambush in northeast Afghanistan.

--2008--

- July 13: Nine US soldiers are killed in clashes in eastern Kunar province.

- August 18: Ten French soldiers are killed in a Taliban ambush, about 50 kilometres from Kabul.

--2009--

- September 17: Six Italian troops are killed in a suicide bomb attack in Kabul.

- October 3: Eight US soldiers and two Afghan troops are killed in fierce fighting against hundreds of militants in eastern Nuristan province, bordering Pakistani tribal areas that are havens for Al-Qaeda and Taliban sympathisers.

- October 27: Eight US soldiers die in several bomb attacks in the south of the country.

--2010--

- January 11: Three US, two French and one British soldier are killed in fighting in the south and east of the country.

- May 18: Eight NATO soldiers are killed, including six in a suicide attack on a NATO convoy in Kabul.

- June 7: Seven US, two Australian and a French soldier are killed in several bomb attacks in the south and and the east of the country.

- June 8: Two more NATO soldiers are killed in southern Afghanistan.

In addition, on December 30, 2009, seven Americans working for the CIA and a member of the Jordanian intelligence services are killed in a suicide attack by a member of Al-Qaeda at a US base in the southeastern province of Khost near to the border with Pakistan.

earlier related report
US weighs reinforcements for troubled Afghan province: Gates
London (AFP) June 8, 2010 - The United States is weighing sending US reinforcements to Afghanistan's troubled southern Helmand province, where British troops are "in the thick" of fighting, officials said Tuesday.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he spoke to his British counterpart about deploying additional US troops to assist British forces stationed in the Sangin district, a centre for the opium trade in Helmand.

"The question of whether there need to be additional American forces there to help was discussed," Gates said at a press conference with British Defence Secretary Liam Fox.

British troops in Sangin are "in the absolute thick of the fight," he said.

But he said that it was up to the commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, to assess whether US troops are needed to complement the British units in Helmand.

"Fundamentally, this is an issue that needs to be evaluated by General McChrystal," he said.

Both Gates and Fox said it was highly unlikely that British troops would be pulled out of the area, as some media reports had suggested, and sent to neigbouring Kandahar province.

US commanders have portrayed Helmand as the scene of relative progress where substantial forces are already in place, after a US-led offensive in February in the Marjah area, southwest of Sangin.

Amid a troop buildup, McChrystal and his officers are increasingly focused on Kandahar, launching a make-or-break operation to push back the Taliban from their spiritual homeland.

But deploying possible reinforcements to Helmand raised questions about the course of the war as well as London's plans for its Afghan mission, which has become increasingly unpopular in Britain.

It was unclear if the option for US reinforcements reflected setbacks in Helmand or a way to prepare the way for the eventual drawdown of British forces.

Gates said the Sangin district, which British troops dubbed "Sangingrad" after intense fighting three years ago, is "one of the toughest areas in all of Afghanistan."

With a dam in the area needed to provide electricity to the local population, Gates said the district -- which lies on the eastern edge of Helmand province -- carried strategic importance.

It was an area that "we cannot turn our backs on," he said.

Fox said British troops had suffered heavy casualties over the years in Sangin but had developed an "expertise" for the area and it would make little sense to withdraw and deploy to Kandahar.

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