The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in a statement issued here on Sunday confirmed two ISAF soldiers were killed Saturday in southern Afghanistan.

It did not specify the nationality of victims in the light of ISAF policy.

However, Canadian troops stationed in southern Afghan province of Kandahar, according to media reports, said two soldiers of them were killed by roadside bombing during a patrol in Panjwayi district as three more soldiers and two Afghan nationals wounded.

Spiraling conflicts and Taliban-linked insurgency have claimed more than 5,000 people with over 290 foreign soldiers so far this year, despite over 70,000-strong international troops stationed in strife-torn Afghanistan.

(Xinhua News Agency December 28, 2008)