U.S. service member killed in Afghanistan

KABUL — An American service member was killed by a roadside bomb yesterday in southern Afghanistan in what military officials said was the first casualty of stepped-up U.S. operations in beleaguered Helmand province.

Six Afghan soldiers and an American also were wounded when their vehicle struck the roadside bomb while on patrol near the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah. The injured American was in stable condition, the U.S. military said.

The second U.S. combat death in Afghanistan this year came after the Pentagon announced Monday that 100 U.S. service members had been deployed to Lashkar Gah to help Afghan forces repel a Taliban advance on the strategic city.

Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland, U.S. military spokesman in Kabul, said neither the soldier who was killed, nor the American soldier who was wounded, were part of the detachment that was moved into the city over the weekend to advise and assist Afghan forces.

The Pentagon did not release the name of the U.S. soldier killed because of its long-standing policy to first notify family members.

Helmand, site of some of the fiercest battles involving U.S.-led coalition forces during the 15-year war, is the hub of Afghanistan’s poppy crop, a major source of Taliban revenue.

The insurgent group has launched a monthslong offensive aimed at capturing Lashkar Gah and is believed to control more than half the province. Afghan military officials say roughly 4,000 Taliban militants are fighting in Helmand.

For the last three weeks, Afghan special forces, backed by dozens of U.S. airstrikes, have managed to keep the Taliban out of Lashkar Gah. U.S. and Afghan officials say the city of about 300,000 is no longer in danger of falling to the insurgents.

“While the Taliban has had some temporary, local success, the (Afghan forces are) moving back on the offense and beginning to clear some of the contested areas,” Cleveland said. “As for Lashkar Gah, we believe that situation is calm within the city. For Helmand overall, we think the situation has been stabilizing over the last seven to 10 days.”

Provincial governor Hayatullah Hayat said Afghan operations in Helmand over the last 24 hours had killed or wounded scores of insurgents. Afghan commandos have been leading the battles, in some cases backed by strikes from Afghan aircraft.