KABUL (AP) – Three U.S. service members were killed Monday in fighting in southern Afghanistan, underscoring the unrelenting violence in the Taliban heartland as the Obama administration steps up efforts to rout the insurgents.

NATO said the Americans were killed in an engagement with enemy forces but gave no more details.
The deaths raised to at least 10 the number of U.S. service members killed in Afghanistan so far this year, according to an Associated Press tally.
Officials said earlier Monday that bombs killed another American service member and two Afghan road construction workers in separate attacks Sunday in southern Afghanistan.
The southern half of the country has frequently been hit by attacks as the U.S. military builds up its presence in the area. Most of the 30,000 additional American troops that President Barack Obama has ordered to Afghanistan will be deployed there.
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