Taliban insurgents killed a Georgian soldier serving with NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, Georgia's tenth fatality in the conflict, the defence ministry said on Thursday.
"Sergeant Rezo Beridze has died of wounds he received during Taliban insurgents' attack while on patrol in Afghanistan's Helmand province," the ministry said in a statement.
A staunch ally of the United States with ambitions to join NATO, tiny Georgia has deployed 950 troops to Afghanistan, mainly in Helmand province alongside US Marines.
The country is preparing to further boost its deployment and intends to become the largest non-NATO contributor to the Western military alliance's 152,000-strong forces in the war-torn country battling a Taliban insurgency.
Georgia's NATO bid has infuriated neighbouring Russia, which fought a brief war with Georgia in 2008 over the Moscow-backed breakaway region of South Ossetia.
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