KABUL (BNO NEWS) -- A coalition service member was killed in southern Afghanistan on Sunday when a roadside bomb struck a NATO convoy, according to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and local police.

Police said the blast happened around 11.30 a.m. local time in Kandahar City, the capital of the province with the same name. Few other details were immediately available. ISAF confirmed one of their service members was killed in the attack.

The nationality of the service member was not immediately disclosed. "It is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities," an ISAF statement said.

Coalition casualties in Afghanistan have been rising sharply in recent years, with a total coalition death toll of 709 in 2010, making it the deadliest year for international troops since the war began in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

The council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) eventually declared that the attacks of 9/11, which killed nearly 3,000 people from scores of countries, was considered an attack on all NATO nations. The NATO-backed war in Afghanistan aims to defeat the Taliban and other insurgent groups in the country.

So far this year, more than 60 coalition service members have been killed in Afghanistan. Most of the troops are killed in the country's south, which is plagued by IED attacks on troops and civilians.

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