KABUL (AFP/AP) – Two foreign soldiers battling the Taliban in southern Afghanistan were killed Sunday in a bomb attack, NATO said.

The deaths bring to 536 the number of foreign troops to die in the Afghan war so far this year, compared to 521 for all of 2009, according to an AFP tally based on that kept by icasualties.org.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the soldiers ""died following an improvised explosive device attack in southern Afghanistan,"" referring to roadside and remote-control bombs laid by the Taliban.
The nationalities of the dead were not given, according to policy.
The United States and NATO have almost 150,000 troops in Afghanistan, confronting Taliban resistance launched soon after the Taliban's 1996-2001 regime was overthrown in a U.S.-led invasion.
The coalition also said it killed at least five Taliban fighters during a clearing operation in Kandahar, the Taliban heartland in the south that remains particularly volatile.
The multi-day operation was intended to impede the Taliban's ability to move freely in the area and to disrupt its attempts to stage attacks. According to a NATO statement Sunday, the militants fought back with rocket-propelled grenades, machine-gun and small-arms fire. It said no Afghan or coalition troops were killed.
NATO also said it launched an air strike late Saturday in Kunar province, along the Pakistan border, that targeted a senior al-Qaeda commander who coordinates a group of Arab fighters in the area, saying he routinely helped them travel into the region.
It did not say whether the commander was killed in the attack, but said his compound was destroyed. It said collateral damage was kept to a minimum, but did not provide further information.