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Two U.S. special forces soldiers were killed and another was wounded Saturday in an ambush in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said.

The soldiers were on a reconnaissance patrol in Helmand province when they were attacked, said a statement from the headquarters of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Three Afghan soldiers also were wounded in the incident, said an intelligence chief in southern Afghanistan.

The soldiers were inspecting a school and hospital being built with American funding, said Dad Mohammed Khan, the intelligence chief of Helmand.

"Two U.S. Special Forces were killed and one wounded when their four vehicle-mounted reconnaissance patrol was ambushed in the vicinity of Geresk," the U.S. military said in a statement from a U.S.-run military base north of the capital, Kabul.

It did not immediately identify the victims.

Geresk is about 70 miles west of Kandahar.

Four people riding on two motorcycles ambushed the U.S. vehicles and escaped, Khan said, identifying the assailants as fighters of the former Taliban regime ousted by a U.S.-led coalition in late 2001.

Two days earlier, unidentified gunmen shot to death a water engineer working for the International Committee of the Red Cross. Ricardo Munguia, 39, was killed when his car was intercepted on a dirt road while he was returning from Tarin Kot, in neighboring Uruzgan province, to the southern city of Kandahar.

Munguia was a citizen of both Switzerland and El Salvador. He was the first foreign aid worker killed since the Taliban was expelled.

The deaths bring to 18 the number of combat casualties suffered by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

The last death occurred Dec. 21 when U.S. Army Sgt. Steven Checo, 22, of New York City, was shot and killed in a gunfight while on a nighttime operation in the eastern province of Paktika, near the border of Pakistan.

Meanwhile, U.S. special forces also were operating with hundreds of Afghan soldiers in Uruzgan province in a fight against about 100 Taliban fighters, officials said.

Uruzgan province Gov. Haji Jan Mohammed told The Associated Press that 15 Taliban have been killed and eight captured in the fighting in Sangisakh Shaila, 50 miles north of the southern city of Kandahar. Mohammed said so far six of his men have been wounded.

He said he had sent at least 400 soldiers to the fight, and that U.S. special forces are also involved.

Another 600 soldiers from neighboring Kandahar province have been sent to the battle area, said provincial police official Shafiullah, who like many Afghans uses only one name.

"The Taliban are using heavy weapons and we are trying to either kill or arrest them," Mohammed said.

The U.S. military said unidentified assailants opened fire on a small group of U.S. special forces soldiers Saturday morning in the vicinity of Khakrez, 27 miles northwest of Kandahar.

"The U.S. special forces were engaged; they attempted to break contact and called in air support," the U.S. military said in a statement from Bagram Air Base.

"The air support consisted of two Apache helicopters which were engaged by enemy ground fire. They returned fire."

The statement also said coalition F-16s rushed to Khakrez and dropped GBU-12 bombs. No coalition casualties were reported.

Many Taliban are believed to be hiding in southern Afghanistan since they were ousted by U.S.-led bombardment after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

photo credit and caption:

U.S. Army Sgt. David Parshall inspects one of many pieces of unexploded ordnance discovered off the National Highway 4 near the army base in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Thursday, March 27, 2003. Ammunition, weapons and mines from years of conflict litter the terrain of Afghanistan. Ordnance once discovered is marked and disposed of by the Explosive Ordinance Division of the Coalition Army working in the country. (AP Photo/Gurinder Osan)

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