In a deadly incident, three Australian commandos and a US occupation soldier were killed when their helicopter crashed in the southern province of Kandahar, the single worst loss of life for the Australian military in the Afghan war.
Australia said the helicopter crash, which killed three Australian commandos, was not caused by enemy fire but was the country's deadliest single incident in the nearly nine-year conflict.
"This is a tragic day for Australia and the Australian Defense Force," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told parliament. "This is a very heavy price to pay."
It was the second helicopter crash to kill NATO troops this month. Taliban militants killed four US soldiers on June 9 when they shot down a helicopter in the southern province of Helmand.
Another two NATO occupation troops, including an American, were killed in separate bomb explosions but their nationalities have not been released.
In other incidents, another soldier was killed following a small-arms attack by militants in the south and two other troops were killed after a roadside bomb attack in eastern Afghanistan, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said in a statement.
The deaths brought to 284 the number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year, according to an AFP tally based on figures kept by the independent icasualties.org website.
Britain also announced a grim toll of 300 dead in Afghanistan after one of its soldiers died from wounds suffered in an explosion earlier this month in the neighboring southern province of Helmand.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, who visited Afghanistan earlier this month, said British troops would leave "as soon as they (Afghans) are able to take care and take security for their own country".
He described the latest British death as "desperately sad news.
"Another family with such grief and pain and loss. Of course the 300th death is no more or less tragic than the 299 that came before."
For its part, the US military has warned that casualty tolls will inevitably climb as foreign forces build up their offensive against Taliban militants in Kandahar, with total occupation troop numbers set to peak at 150,000 across the country by August.
This month NATO commander US General Stanley McChrystal said the make-or-break operation would move at a slower pace than initially planned.
Apart from the shortage of Afghan forces, McChrystal said more political work was required to prepare the ground for military operations, to ensure support from Kandahar's leaders and the local population.
The Taliban last month vowed a new campaign of attacks on diplomats, lawmakers and foreign forces, and has so far rejected a plan drawn up at a landmark peace meeting to give jobs and money to those who lay down arms.
On other hand, and as part of the plan from "peace jirga" convened by President Hamid Karzai early this month, 20 Taliban suspects have been freed from jails in Afghanistan, an adviser to the president said Monday.
"We reviewed their cases one by one. But there was not enough evidence against them," said Nasrullah Stanikzai, a member of the government committee said.
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