8 U.S. TROOPS AMONG 12 NATO TROOPS KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN

The death toll in Afghanistan keeps rising.

On Wednesday eight U.S. troops were among the 12 NATO troops killed in the volatile region around Kandahar Afghanistan.

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KABUL (AFP) – A string of bomb, rocket and gun attacks in southern Afghanistan killed 12 NATO troops in just two days, officials said Wednesday, throwing the spotlight on the spiralling cost of the war.

The brazen assaults included the killing of three British troops by a rogue Afghan soldier, an incident that has underscored concerns over efforts to build up the local army, a cornerstone of the US-led war strategy.

Of the 12 dead, four were British troops and eight American.

"We're in the toughest part of this fight," German army general Josef Blotz, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), told reporters.

Four US soldiers were killed in a Taliban-style bombing and a fifth by small-arms fire in the volatile south on Wednesday, an ISAF spokeswoman said.

Late Tuesday, Taliban insurgents had set off a car bomb, then fired rockets and small arms into a police base in the southern province of Kandahar, killing three US soldiers and five Afghan civilians.