| GEO World | | July is deadliest month for US forces in Afghanistan | Updated at: 1107 PST, Saturday, July 31, 2010
KABUL: Six US soldiers were killed in bombing and insurgent attacks in Afghanistan's volatile south, making July the deadliest month of the war for American forces, officers said Friday.
Three were killed on Thursday and three more on Friday, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said. A US defense official in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the six soldiers were Americans.
The casualties brought the death toll for US soldiers in July to 66, an all-time high that surpassed the record toll of 60 for the previous month, according to the icasualties.org website.
US and NATO commanders have warned that an influx of foreign troops and a push against insurgents in the south would trigger a spike in casualties.
The mounting death toll for foreign troops has piled political pressure on the United States and its allies amid growing public doubts about the war, now in its ninth year.
Five of the six soldiers died in attacks using homemade bombs, or improvised explosive devices, ISAF said.
Homemade bombs, cheap and easy to make and plant, are the Taliban's main weapon in the war in Afghanistan.
NATO and the United States have close to 150,000 troops in the country, with 30,000 deployed to the southern Taliban heartland in Helmand and Kandahar provinces. |  | | | |
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