Afghanistan: New taliban attacks kill eight US soldiers

Eight Americans died in combat in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, bringing October’s total to 53 and making it the deadliest month for Americans in the eight-year war reported the New York Times.

The growing violence — along with continued political turmoil in Afghanistan — pose urgent challenges for the Obama administration as it deliberates over how best to fight insurgents here.

Combined with the deaths Monday of 11 U.S. servicemen and 3 agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency in separate helicopter crashes, 22 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan in the past two days.

The Taliban had claimed responsibility for downing a Chinook MH-47 helicopter in western Afghanistan Monday, but Defense Department officials said today that there are no indications that any of the helicopter crashes yesterday were caused by hostile fire.

Violence levels against American and NATO troops spiked this summer following the arrival of 21,000 U.S. troops ordered as reinforcements by the Obama administration. There are now 68,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan and 32,000 NATO troops.

Defense officials declared that today’s fatalities occurred in two separate, but similar attacks on the Army’s armored vehicles known as Strykers.

The most devastating attack occurred in northwest Kandahar province where seven troops died when a Stryker vehicle was blasted by a roadside bomb explosion that was followed by small arms fire. The military labels these types of attacks as complex because they involve more than one form of attack.

Today’s other U.S. fatality occurred when another Stryker vehicle operating in Zabul province which is next to Kandahar province was struck by a roadside bomb.