- KABUL (Reuters) -- Two U.S.
soldiers were killed and three wounded by a roadside bomb while on patrol
in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, a U.S. military spokesman said
on Saturday.
-
- They were the first U.S. soldiers to die in Afghanistan
since last week's historic presidential election and brought the number
of U.S. military personnel killed since an operation to drive out the Taliban
and al Qaeda was launched three years ago to 102.
-
- The bomb exploded northwest of Deh Rawood, 400 km (250
miles) southwest of the capital, Kabul, on Thursday.
-
- The military were unsure who was behind the attack, Major
Mark McCann said, but Uruzgan is the home province of fugitive Taliban
leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.
-
- Millions of Afghan voted in the presidential election,
braving threats of violence from the Taliban and its hard-line Islamist
allies.
-
- While the high turnout was regarded as an overwhelming
success for Afghanistan's political transition, the absence of any major
incident was also seen as a triumph for the U.S., Afghan, and NATO-led
security forces.
-
- Counting began on Thursday and could take three weeks
to complete, but early returns showed President Hamid Karzai, who has led
an interim government since the fall of the Taliban militia in 2001, had
struck an early lead.
-
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