The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed deaths of seven soldiers from Georgia in Thursday’s suicide attack that rocked the troubled Helmand province, 555 km south of Afghan capital Kabul, bringing the alliance casualties to 81 so far this year, 13 of them in June.
“Seven Georgian International Security Assistance Force service members were killed yesterday when enemies of Afghanistan attacked their position in southern Afghanistan with a vehicle borne improvised explosive device,” ISAF said in a short statement.
Nine more Georgian service members sustained injuries in the attack.
This is the bloodiest attack against Georgian troops serving in Afghanistan within the framework of NATO-led forces stationed in the country so far this year for which the armed Taliban outfit has claimed responsibility.
The militant group, in a statement posted on its website, termed the attack as part of its spring offensive dubbed “Khalid Bin Walid,” adding that a suicide bomber named Abdul Ghafar of Kandahar blew up his explosive-laden truck against the military base of foreign troops in Nawzad district of Helmand province Thursday afternoon.
Since launching the spring offensive on April 28, Taliban-linked militancy has been on the rise in Afghanistan.
Earlier, Nawzad Governor Seyad Murad had said, “A militant rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into the entrance gate of the foreign forces’ military base in Anzar Shali area of Nawzad district around 5 pm local time on Thursday, causing casualties.”
The NATO-led multinational peacekeeping troops known as ISAF has lost 81 of its service members since January this year in conflict-ridden Afghanistan, 13 of them this month alone, according to icasualties, a website tracking the US-led coalition’s casualties in the war on terror.
The deadly bombing, according to media reports, has prompted Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Alasania to take the tragic issue up with his Afghan counterpart General Bismillah Khan Mohammadi.
Three Georgian soldiers were killed in a similar attack, also in Helmand province’s Musa Qala district, last month.
More than 1,000 Georgian troops have been serving in Afghanistan within the framework of NATO-led ISAF to help stabilise the militancy-plagued nation.
There are around 100,000 NATO-led ISAF forces in Afghanistan with more than 60,000 of them from the US.
