Four US soldiers operating under NATO were killed Tuesday in a bomb blast in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said.
The troops were operating under NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and were killed in a region of Afghanistan where a Taliban-led insurgency is at its most virulent, ISAF said in a statement.
It did not disclose the exact location of the incident.
"Four International Security Assistance Force service members were killed today as a result of an improvised explosive device (IED) detonation that occurred in southern Afghanistan," the statement said.
Quoting Navy Chief Petty Officer Brian Naranjo, the statement said the soldiers were Americans.
The troopers were on a patrol "in one of the most violent areas of Afghanistan" when the incident took place, the statement said.
The latest casualties bring to 63 the number of foreign soldiers who have died in Afghanistan this month, and to 295 the death toll since January.
This year has been the deadliest for the foreign military deployment in Afghanistan since they arrived in 2001 after toppling the Taliban regime.
The Taliban, which had been in power since 1996, have escalated their insurgency each year, prompting President Barack Obama's administration to send additional troops in an effort to defeat the Islamist rebels.
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