Two NATO service members killed in eastern Afghanistan(Update: Nato)

Kabul, May 18 (Xinhua-ANI): Two NATO service members were killed Friday morning in an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan, the military alliance confirmed in a press release.

"Two International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) service members died following an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan today," the NATO-led ISAF said in the press release.

The brief release neither mentions the nationalities of the victims nor provides details and the exact place of the incident under the ISAF policy, only saying "it is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities."

Fifty countries are contributing 130,000-strong forces in Afghanistan with over 90,000 of them American mainly stationed in the east and south, followed by 9,500 from UK mainly based in southern Afghanistan.

In another development, two children were killed and seven other civilians were injured Friday morning in a mortar attack in eastern Afghan province of Kunar, a provincial health official said.

"Seven injured people have been admitted to a hospital in provincial capital Asadabad Friday morning," director of provincial health department Asadullah Fazli told Xinhua, adding two children were killed on the post after the attack.

The injured include three women and four children with one child in critical condition, he said.

Several mortar rounds were shelled by suspected Taliban militants to target a joint military camp of Afghan and NATO-led troops in Watapor district at about 8 a.m. local time Friday but a mortar round missed the target and hit a house near the camp causing the casualties, a police source in the province said.

It was not clear whether the foreign soldiers lost their lives in the same incident. A total of 158 foreign soldiers with majority of them Americans have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year.

The Taliban insurgent group, who has been waging a decade-long insurgency, announced on May 2 that they would launched a spring rebel offensive starting from May 3 to target Afghan forces as well as U.S. and NATO troops across the country.

They have also warned the civilians to stay away from official gatherings, military convoys and centers regarded as the legitimate targets by militants. (Xinhua-ANI)