2 U.S. troops, 7 Afghan soldiers killed in country’s east, west

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REPORTING FROM KABUL, AFGHANISTAN -- There is snow on the mountain peaks and the summer “fighting season” is drawing to a close. But battlefield violence continues to claim the lives of coalition troops in Afghanistan.

Two Americans and seven Afghan troops were killed Wednesday in three incidents, Afghan and Western officials said.

The two U.S. soldiers were killed by an improvised explosive device, or IED, in the east, military officials said. The region, near the Pakistan border, has been the scene of some of the year’s heaviest fighting, and IEDs remain the leading killer of Western soldiers.

Four Afghan soldiers and an officer were killed in an explosion in Herat province, in the west. It has traditionally been one of the calmer areas of the country, but this week the main Afghan intelligence service, the National Directorate for Security, or NDS, said it had arrested a member of the Taliban’s main leadership council, known as the Quetta Shura, in Herat.

The NDS also reported the arrest of a ringleader in a plot to attack Western targets in the province, including plans to try to abduct American citizens.

Two other Afghan soldiers were killed in Badghis, a province in the northwest where insurgents have been increasingly active. Like many attacks on Afghan troops, this one by a suicide bomber targeting an army convoy, claimed civilian lives as well: a father and a son who were driving nearby.

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-- Laura King