3 US troops die in deadliest month of Afghan war

Three U.S. service members have been killed in Afghanistan, bringing the toll for July to at least 63 and making it the deadliest month for American forces in the nearly 9-year-war.

A NATO statement Friday said the three died in two separate blasts in southern Afghanistan on Thursday. The statement gives no nationalities but U.S. officials say they were all Americans. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity pending notification of kin.

That brings the U.S. death toll for the month to at least 63 according to an Associated Press count. June had been the deadliest month for the U.S. with 60 deaths and for the overall NATO led force with 104 fatalities.

Cheap and easy to make and plant, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are the Taliban's main weapon in the war in Afghanistan, nearing the end of its ninth year.

A total of 408 foreign troops have died in the Afghan war so far this year, according to an AFP tally based on that kept by the icasualties.org website.

The toll for July is 86, compared with 102 in June which was the worst month for foreign military casualties since the end of 2001.

NATO and the United States have close to 150,000 troops in the country, with 30,000 deployed to the southern Taliban heartland in Helmand and Kandahar provinces.

Meanwhile, a motorcycle bomb targeting a candidate in Afghanistan's upcoming parliamentary election killed a woman and a child Friday in the city of Kandahar, police said.

The explosives-laden motorcycle was parked in a city centre alley used by the candidate, and detonated minutes after he passed by, provincial deputy police chief Fazel Ahmad Shairzad told AFP.

He blamed the attack on "enemies of Afghanistan", a term often used to refer to Taliban insurgents who have waged a nearly nine-year insurgency against Afghan and U.S.-led foreign troops.