1 American servicemember killed in insurgent attack Thursday in eastern Afghanistan

1 American servicemember killed in Afghan attack

KABUL, Afghanistan — An American servicemember died in fighting in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, while the coalition said it had killed the leader of an insurgent cell responsible for laying roadside bombs and smuggling foreign fighters into the country.

No other details of the servicemember’s death were given in keeping with standard NATO procedure.

The death is the second this month in Afghanistan for the U.S. military and follows a spike in casualties during the last two weeks of August that saw that month’s total number of killed in action rise to 55. The August figure was still slightly below the back-to-back monthly records of 66 in July and 60 in June.

NATO said a tip had led its forces to the Taliban commander as he was riding a motorcycle in the eastern province of Paktika near the mountainous border with Pakistan, where insurgents maintain a number of safe havens.

After killing the commander with a precision air strike, NATO said it dispatched ground forces to the site where they found weapons and materials for making roadside bombs. One other insurgent was killed and one detained after the ground force later moved in on a compound frequented by the Taliban commander.

The commander was not identified by name and it wasn’t clear how many fighters he controlled.

Paktika is one of several eastern provinces where the Taliban and its allies maintain cross-border routes to smuggle in weapons and other supplies, along with militants, many of them linked to al-Qaida, who are recruited from their homelands in the Persian Gulf, North Africa and further afield to come to fight in Afghanistan.

Estimates of the number of foreign fighters in Afghanistan vary, with the vast majority of Taliban drawn from Afghanistan’s various tribes, especially in the Pashtun-dominated south.

U.S. Special Forces have increasingly targeted Taliban field commanders as a means of attacking morale and discouraging other insurgents from taking on leadership positions, a strategy NATO hopes will turn the tide of the nearly nine-year war.

Also Thursday, executives of the country’s largest financial institution, Kabul Bank, braced for a run on deposits following allegations it was deep in the red. The bank handles salary payments for Afghan soldiers and public servants and a collapse could lead to further political instability in this unstable, impoverished nation beset by the stubborn Taliban insurgency and widespread drug trafficking and plundering of aid money.

Larger than usual crowds of customers gathered outside Kabul Bank’s main branch in the center of the Afghan capital, but there was little sign of panic. Managers said there was enough Afghan cash on hand to make payouts to customers nervous about the safety of their deposits, although the supply of dollars had run out about one hour after opening.

Afghan officials have sought to reassure the public, and Afghan television stations broadcast remarks Wednesday night from central bank governor Abdul Qadir Fitrat insisting that Kabul Bank was solvent and had enough liquidity to meet demands.