KABUL, Afghanistan, June 25, (Agencies): Two US troops were reported killed and the bodies of 11 men, some beheaded, were found Friday in rising violence across Afghanistan.
Mohammad Khan, deputy police chief in Uruzgan province, said a villager in the Bagh Char area of Khas Uruzgan district spotted the bodies in a field and called police.
“They were killed because the Taleban said they were spying for the government, working for the government,” he said.
The acting Uruzgan governor, Khudia Rahim, said five or six of the 11 victims had been beheaded.
Meanwhile, NATO reported that a US service member was killed in an insurgent attack Friday in eastern Afghanistan and another American died following a roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan on Thursday. NATO did not provide the exact location of the attacks.
Their deaths brought to 82 the number of international service members killed so far in June, which is already the deadliest month of the nearly 9-year-old war. Forty-eight were Americans.
Also in the south, a joint force of Afghan and international troops killed a midlevel Taleban commander and other insurgents Thursday who were planting a roadside bomb near the provincial capital of Kandahar province, NATO said. Some of the insurgents were killed by a coalition airstrike, NATO said.
It said the Taleban commander, Faizullah, was responsible for roadside bomb attacks in the Arghandab district of Kandahar and is believed to have killed at least one coalition soldier in March.
The coalition is ramping up security in and around Kandahar, the largest city in the south, in an effort to drive out insurgents and bring the area under the control of the central Afghan government in Kabul.
Washington’s senior military officer was due to arrive in Afghanistan on Friday to explain the sacking of the allied commander in Kabul as the Obama administration said it was not “bogged down” in the war.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, left late Thursday for Afghanistan and Pakistan to reassure regional leaders that the war effort would not be derailed by the departure of General Stanley McChrystal.
“My message will be clear. Nothing changes about our strategy. Nothing changes about the mission,” said Mullen.
He spoke a day after McChrystal was forced to step down as commander of the NATO-led force over disparaging remarks about administration officials, including President Barack Obama, in an explosive magazine article.
Meanwhile, Australia’s new prime minister said she used her first telephone conversation with President Barack Obama on Friday to assure him the country’s military commitment to Afghanistan would not change under her leadership.
Some observers have speculated Prime Minister Julia Gillard may push for an early withdrawal of Australia’s 1,550 troops from Afghanistan as the war loses popularity among Australians and elections loom.
“I assured President Obama that my approach to Afghanistan will continue the approach taken to date by the Australian government,” Gillard told reporters on Friday, less than 24 hours after she was sworn in as the country’s first female prime minister.
“I fully support the current deployment, and I indicated to President Obama that he should expect to see the Australian efforts in Afghanistan continuing,” she added.
The White House said Obama “praised the special alliance between the United States and Australia, and the shared interests, values and bonds that underpin it” during their conversation.
“Both leaders underscored their shared commitment to closely work together on the broad range of global challenges confronting both countries, including in Afghanistan,” the White House said.