Report: NATO, Afghan troops killed in multiple attacks

Hussain, who led operations for the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, in Kunduz was ambushed by gunmen while heading to its headquarters in the Chardara district in northern Afghanistan. 

{mosads}In Kandahar, Taliban gunmen overran the border checkpoint after an intense gun battle with local police stationed there, Afghan border police chief for southern Afghanistan Gen. Tafser Khan told the The Associated Press. 

The two Romanian soldiers stationed in eastern Afghanistan were killed when a roadside bomb detonated during a foot patrol by NATO forces in the region, according to a statement by the Romanian defense ministry. 

Romanian Defense Minister Mircea Dusa identified the two casualties as Vasile Popa, 28, and Adrian Postelnicu, 34, Tuesday. He did not disclose details on where in eastern Afghanistan the attack took place. 

Popa was on his second deployment to the country at the time of his death, while Postelnicu was on his first deployment to Afghanistan. 

The slew of attacks in eastern and southern Afghanistan come days after the latest insider attack against U.S. forces in the country. 

Three coalition troops were killed in Gardez in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday in the latest insider attack by Afghans against U.S. and coalition forces. 

The attack took place in the volatile Paktia province along the Afghan-Pakistan border, according to Afghan defense ministry officials. 

The shooter, dressed in an Afghan National Security Forces uniform, opened fire on the coalition troops, killing three before being killed by Afghan troops operating alongside allied forces. 

Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said Kabul was investigating the incident, with assistance from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) command. 

Areas like Kandahar and Paktia continue to be a hotbed of insurgent violence as U.S. and coalition commanders prepare for the final pullout of Western forces from Afghanistan. 

Volatile provinces in eastern Afghanistan along the country’s border with Pakistan were the last areas to be handed over from U.S. forces to Afghan National Security Forces in June.

American and Afghan forces are bracing for a possible large-scale Taliban offensive in Paktia and elsewhere in eastern Afghanistan as this year’s fighting season in the country comes to a close. 

“We expect the enemies of the Afghan people to come out and try to achieve those objectives that they’ve not been able to achieve,” Maj. Gen. James McConville, the top U.S. commander for Regional Command-East told reporters at the Pentagon in August. 

American forces are expected to withdraw from Afghanistan, beginning in April 2014. All U.S. and allied troops should be out of the country by December of that year, bringing the American war in Afghanistan to a close.