Wire: 5 US Servicemembers Killed in Afghanistan Over Weekend

Off the Wire:

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24, 2010 -- Newswire services this morning reported that five U.S. servicemembers have been killed in bombings over the past 24 hours in Afghanistan, NATO's international Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said Sunday.

Two of the servicemembers were killed in a home-made bomb explosion in the country's south, the force said in a statement.

"Two ISAF service members from the United States were killed today in an IED strike in southern Afghanistan," ISAF said, referring to the improvised explosive devices, or roadside bombs, which have been the scourge of foreign troops fighting the Taliban.

The force later announced a third IED death in the south, taking to five the number of American soldiers killed in Afghanistan in past 24 hours.

On Saturday, a roadside bomb also killed two U.S. servicemembers in the same region.

The statements did not disclose the exact location of the incidents.

The French news agency AFG said with the last deaths, 38 foreign soldiers, including 25 Americans, have been killed this year fighting a Taliban insurgency which is at its deadliest since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

The AFP tally is based on that kept by the independent icasualties.org Web site, which tracks military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan.

(Report from newswire sources.)