A US special forces soldier has died of wounds suffered in a clash in volatile southern Afghanistan.
The fatality is is the third US death in Afghanistan in less than a week.
The clash between US-led special operation forces and their Afghan allies and "a 10- to 15-member anti-coalition element" took place yesterday in an area about 50 km west of the district of Deh Rawood in the province of Uruzgan.
"The US special operations soldier died from wounds received in combat," the US military said in a statement on Friday issued at Bagram, the hub of US-led forces in Afghanistan, to the north of Kabul.
It said an "enemy" soldier was also killed in the clash.
Violence in Afghanistan has surged in recent months amid growing attacks by suspected Taliban guerrillas on US-led forces, Afghan soldiers and aid workers. More than 350 people have been killed in attacks since August.
Haji Sayed Mohammad, an Afghan military commander, said today suspected Taliban guerrillas had kidnapped four government officials, including the brother of a district commissioner in the southern province of Zabul, last night.
He said the suspected Taliban wanted to kidnap Mullah Mohammad Zafar, commissioner of the Khak Afghan district in southern Afghanistan, but failed because he was not at home at the time.The victims were taken away into nearby mountains, he said.
About 11,500 US-led forces are hunting remnants of the deposed Taliban, their al-Qaeda allies and followers of warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who have declared a 'jihad' war against foreign troops in Afghanistan and US-backed President Hamid Karzai's government.
Nearly 40 US soldiers have been killed, mainly in the south and southeast, the strongholds of the former regime, since the launch of a US-led war in Afghanistan in the wake of attacks on September 11th, 2001.
Two US Central Intelligence Agency servicemen were killed at the weekend in the southeastern province of Paktika.