Attacks against Western occupation forces in Afghanistan and Iraq continue. In Iraq…

Four US troops have been killed in separate attacks in Baghdad and south of the capital.
The US military says a fifth soldier died of non-combat related causes.

Miles to the south…

A Danish soldier was killed and five other soldiers and one interpreter were wounded in an ambush in Al Hartha north of Basra in southern Iraq, the Danish central army command said on Monday.

Meanwhile, the search for the missing three US occupation soldiers is ongoing..

An Iraqi group linked to al-Qaeda has said that three US troops which it claims to have captured will be safe only if the army calls off its search for the missing men.
The Islamic State of Iraq, which works closely with al-Qaeda, issued the taunt - to which US spokesmen have not publicly responded - in a statement posted on a website on Monday.
“Your soldiers are in our grip. If you want the safety of your soldiers then do not search for them,” the statement said.
Referring to the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, by American soldiers last year, it said: “You should remember what you have done to our sister Abeer in the same area.”

On the Pakistani Afghani border…

A Nato soldier has been killed and four wounded in an attack by “unknown assailants” in Pakistan after meeting counterparts in the country to discuss calming tensions between Afghan and Pakistani forces, a Nato statement has said.

The new casualties among occupation troops in Afghanistan occured, as the German defense minister expressed concerns about the dwindling support the occupation troops enjoy among the Afghani people…

U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan need to change tactics to limit civilian casualties and prevent a backlash from locals, Germany’s defense minister said Monday, reflecting European unease about reports of high death tolls in incidents involving American units.
“We have to make sure that in the future, operations do not take place in this way,” Franz Josef Jung told reporters at a meeting of EU defense ministers. “We don’t want the population against us. We have to prevent that.”

Click on Latuff’s cartoon below to read the full report…