Nato soldier, 20 insurgents killed in Afghanistan

A soldier in a Nato-led force fighting an extremist insurgency in Afghanistan died in a bomb blast Saturday while the US military announced it had killed 20 Taliban-linked insurgents.
The fresh violence came as Nato leaders opened talks Saturday on a new strategy for Afghanistan, where the alliance leads 62,000 soldiers helping the fragile government tackle a tide of violence.
An International Security Assistance Force soldier died of wounds after a bombing in southern Afghanistan Saturday, Isaf said in a statement.
Isaf, which draws its troops from 42 nations, does not release the nationalities of its casualties, leaving it to their home country.
Nearly 80 international soldiers have died in Afghanistan this year, most of them in attacks, according to icasualties.org, which tracks the conflict here.
Also Saturday, a remote-controlled roadside bomb killed two policemen and wounded four when it blew up their vehicle in southern Zabul province, deputy provincial police chief Ghulam Jailani Khan told AFP.
The US-led coalition, which works alongside Isaf and the Afghan forces, said meanwhile that Afghan and international troops killed 20 insurgents in the southern province of Helmand province on Friday.
The battle in the strategic Kajaki district erupted after a patrol was ambushed by numerous men in a "known Taliban stronghold", it said in a statement.
"The combined forces returned fire with small-arms fire and called for close air support destroying six enemy fighting positions and killing 20 insurgents," it said.
Militants in Kajaki are known to be heavily involved in bomb-making and weapons smuggling, attacks on troops and narcotics, the statement said.
Afghanistan produces more than 90 percent of the world's opium, most of it in the desert province of Helmand which shares a largely open border with Pakistan where militants cross to join the insurgency.
Friday's battle was one of a series in the past week that the military says has inflicted heavy insurgent casualties, with 20 reported killed in Helmand on Wednesday and 30 in the Helmand-Uruzgan area on Monday.
Responding to calls from military commanders for more troops, US President Barack Obama in February announced he would send 17,000 extra US soldiers to Afghanistan, most of them headed to the south.
Nato leaders meeting in France Saturday are expected to focus on Afghanistan, where the organisation is undertaking its biggest and most ambitious mission ever.