The four died in three separate incidents, in eastern and southern Afghanistan, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.

ISAF spokesman US Air Force Master Sergeant Jason Haag confirmed all four were Americans.

The deaths bring to 451 the total number of foreign soldiers to die in the Afghan war so far this year, according to an AFP tally based on that kept by the icasualties.org website. The total in 2009 was 520.

Two of the soldiers were killed in the same incident in eastern Afghanistan, while the other two died in separate incidents in the south -- one in an insurgent attack, the other after an attack with a makeshift bomb.

There are close to 150,000 troops in Afghanistan in a US-led NATO force fighting to shore up Afghanistan's fledgling government and fight a Taliban-led insurgency, raging since the Islamists were thrown from power in late 2001.

earlier related report
US drone strike kills four militants in Pakistan: officials
Miranshah, Pakistan (AFP) Aug 21, 2010 - Four militants were killed in a US drone attack in Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt on Saturday, security officials said.

The missiles targeted a compound used by militants in Kutabkhel village, some three kilometres south of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal district, a security official based in Peshawar told AFP.

"A US drone fired four missiles. They targeted a compound and also a car outside the compound," the official said.

The drone strike was also confirmed by two intelligence officials in Miranshah.

"Four militants have been killed in this attack," one of the intelligence official told AFP.

"The strike took place just before Azan (call for the Ramadan prayer)," said the official.

Residents in Miranshah said that militants surrounded the site after the attack.

Security officials said that those killed in the strike were local militants, and they were checking whether there were any "high-value targets" among the dead.

US forces have been waging a covert drone war against Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked commanders in Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt, where militants have carved out havens in mountains outside direct government control.

Washington has branded the rugged tribal area on the Afghan border -- part of which has now been hit by Pakistan's catastrophic flooding -- a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and the most dangerous place on Earth.

The US military does not as a rule confirm drone attacks, but its armed forces and the Central Intelligence Agency operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy pilotless drones in the region.

Nearly 1,000 people have been killed in more than 110 drone strikes in Pakistan since August 2008, including a number of senior militants. However, the attacks fuel anti-American sentiment in the conservative Muslim country.

The United States has been increasing pressure on Pakistan to crack down on Islamist havens along the border.

Pakistani commanders have not ruled out an offensive in North Waziristan, but argue that gains in South Waziristan and the northwestern district of Swat need to be consolidated to prevent their troops from becoming overstretched.

Waziristan came under renewed scrutiny when Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-American charged over an attempted bombing in New York on May 1, allegedly told US interrogators he went to the region for terrorist training.

Al-Qaeda announced in June that its number three leader and Osama bin Laden's one-time treasurer Mustafa Abu al-Yazid had been killed in what security officials said appeared to be a drone strike in North Waziristan.

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