3 NATO Service Members Killed in Afghanistan

Kabul – Three NATO service members were killed Sunday in separate attacks in Afghanistan, the international coalition said.

Two service members died from a bomb and an insurgent attack in the south, while the third was killed in an insurgent attack in the east, the NATO force said in a statement.

NATO did not provide further details or the nationalities of the dead. The coalition typically waits for national authorities to make such announcements.

The latest deaths bring to 15 the number of international service members killed so far this month. So far this year, 286 international troopers have been killed in Afghanistan.

In the west, meanwhile, at least one Afghan deminer was killed from a group of more than 30 who were kidnapped last week in Farah province.

Local officials found the body of one of the missing deminers and reported that four others were believed killed, provincial spokesman Nabiullah Farahi said. The 32 members of a private Afghan de-mining team were ambushed July 6 while driving to a work site in the province. None have been released, Farahi said.

And in Ghazni province in the east, officials said a daylong gunbattle on Saturday ended with four Taliban fighters killed. There were no dead among Afghan forces, said Sayed Abrar Agha, the head of a group that coordinates provincial security operations with international forces.