Roadside bombs kill 4 NATO troops

Kabul, July 17

Roadside bombs killed four NATO troops in Afghanistan, the international force said today, adding to a violent summer as coalition forces step up patrols in the Taliban-dominated south.

Separately, NATO reported that Afghan and foreign troops found nearly 2 tons of processed heroin, 800 kg of opium and 90 kg of ammonium nitrate yesterday that could have been used to make 25 roadside bombs in the southern province of Helmand.

The drugs had a street value in the United States of more than $38 million before taking into account the common practice of cutting them with other ingredients, which would exponentially increase the value, according to the US Drug Enforcement Agency.

Another joint force arrested a Taliban insurgent involved in bomb making after intelligence indicated he was plotting an attack during the upcoming international conference Tuesday in Kabul, NATO said. Several other insurgents were arrested during the raid yesterday night in Kabul.

An American service member was killed by a blast in eastern Afghanistan today, while another coalition soldier, whose nationality was not released, died in a roadside bomb in a southern province, NATO said. It gave no other details.

Two members of the multinational force died in a single explosion yesterday in the south. The NATO-led force gave no details but said one of the troops killed was American.