Seven US troops killed in two attacks in Afghanistan

Five US troops were killed in the southern province of Kandahar when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb on Saturday, a spokesman for the US forces in Afghanistan and local Afghan officials said.
 
Kandahar police chief General Abdul Razeq said that "five American soldiers were killed at about noon when their armored vehicle hit a powerful roadside mine in Maiwand district."
 
Later in the day, two more US soldiers were killed by a soldier of the Afghan National Army in the western province of Farah.
 
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the so-called “green-on-blue attack.”
 
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi sent an email to reporters, saying the "infiltrated mujahid" killed the US troops at a base in the Bala Boluk district of Farah.
 
According to Ahmadi, the Afghan soldier shot and killed four people at the base before he was killed.
 
According to the website icasualties.org, 3299 foreign soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since the US-led war began in October 2001.
 
The increasing number of military casualties in Afghanistan has caused widespread anger in the US and other NATO member states, undermining public support for the Afghan war.
 
The US-led war in Afghanistan removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity continues to rise across Afghanistan, despite the presence of about over 100,000 US-led troops.