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First Troop Death of 2011 in Afghanistan: Officials | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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KABUL, (AFP) — A foreign soldier was killed in volatile southern Afghanistan Saturday, becoming the first troop death of the year after the war’s highest-ever toll of foreign troops in 2010, coalition forces said.

“An International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) service member died following an improvised explosive device attack in southern Afghanistan today,” NATO-led ISAF said in a statement, without giving further information in line with policy.

In 2010, a total of 711 international troops were killed in Afghanistan according to independent website iCasualties, the highest annual death toll since the war began in 2001.

A limited, conditions-based withdrawal of international troops is expected to start in July this year ahead of handing over responsibility for security to Afghan forces in 2014.

There are around 140,000 international troops fighting the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan, around two-thirds of them from the United States.