NATO soldier killed in insurgent attack in S. Afghanistan

A NATO soldier was killed in an insurgent attack in restive Afghanistan's southern region on Wednesday, the military alliance said on Thursday morning. "An International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) service member died following an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan, yesterday," the NATO-led ISAF said in a press release here. However, the brief release did not reveal the nationality of the victim under ISAF policy, only saying "it is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities," Troops mainly from U.S., Britain and Australia have been stationed in the southern region within the framework of ISAF to fight Taliban militants there. The Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since the militant group announced it would launch a rebel offensive starting from May 1 against Afghan and some 130,000 NATO-led troops in Afghanistan. A total of 548 foreign soldiers, most of them Americans, have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year.