Blasts kill five NATO soldiers in Afghanistan

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Roadside bombs killed five NATO troops in eastern Afghanistan on Friday, as 100 aid groups warned that violence in the country was spreading to once-stable regions and hindering humanitarian efforts. The soldiers' deaths marked a bloody start to the month in what's already been a deadly year for US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, where a Taliban-led insurgency is raging nearly seven years after their fundamentalist Muslim regime was ousted in a US-led invasion. Four of the NATO soldiers and a civilian died in Kunar province Friday, the alliance said in a statement. The fifth soldier death was in Khost, another eastern province. The alliance did not release the nationalities of the soldiers. However, most of the troops in those areas are American.