Kabul (ANTARA News/AFP) - Five NATO soldiers died in Afghanistan Wednesday -- four in separate Taliban-type bomb blasts and a fifth in an insurgent attack, the alliance`s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.

Three troopers were killed by a single improvised explosive device (IED) that exploded in eastern Afghanistan while the fourth soldier died in a similar attack in the south of the country, the force said.

It later said a fifth soldier was killed in an insurgent attack in the east.

No further details, including the exact location of the incident or the nationalities of the victims, were disclosed but most NATO soldiers in eastern Afghanistan are US nationals.

The deaths took to 17 the number of foreign soldiers killed since the beginning of the year.

Last year, when 711 foreign troops died, was the deadliest on record since Western troops arrived in Afghanistan following the 2001 fall of the Taliban. (*)

Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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