KABUL, September 30 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A U.S. soldier was killed and two others wounded in a gun battle which also left two fighters dead in southeastern Afghanistan, a U.S. military spokesman confirmed Tuesday, September 30.

"One coalition service member died of wounds received in combat and two others were wounded as a result of fighting on Monday near Shkin," Colonel Rodney Davis told reporters at the Bagram Air Base headquarters 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Kabul.

All the troops were American and the name of the dead soldier was being withheld pending notification of next of kin, Agance France-Presse (AFP) quoted the colonel as saying.

"The soldiers were engaged in a combat maneuver against anti-coalition soldiers," Davis said.

"We killed the two enemy soldiers with small-arms fire and our soldier died as a result of direct fire as well," he said.

Davis asserted it was not known how many militants were involved in Monday's clash and did not provide any further information.

Shkin base, in Paktika province, some 280 kilometers (175 miles) south of Kabul, is regularly targeted by suspected fighters of the ousted Taliban regime.

The colonel last week described Shkin as "the most evil place in Afghanistan" because of frequent attacks there which have resulted in more coalition deaths than in any other part of the country.

Two U.S. soldiers and four militants were killed in a shoot-out with suspected Taliban fighters near Shkin on August 31.

With the latest deaths, 35 of the U.S.-led coalition soldiers have been killed by hostile fire in Afghanistan since the October 2001 launch of operations that ousted Taliban.

Shkin base has also come under regular rocket attack from suspected Taliban fighters.

Attackers fired six rockets at the base on Sunday, prompting coalition artillery fire in response.

Two rockets were also fired at the base on Saturday but neither attack caused any coalition casualties or damage.

U.S. and Afghan troops have killed at least 150 suspected militants in a major offensive launched late August against suspected Taliban fighters.

Taliban fighters, whom Afghan troops say are armed with new technology including night-vision gear and satellite telephones, have been blamed for spiraling attacks on U.S. and Afghan troops, aid workers and Afghan officials.

The upswing in violence has forced the suspension of aid work across huge swathes of southeastern Afghanistan, undermining the war-shattered country's chances of recovering from 23 years of war and drought.

Afghan officials charge Taliban fighters are finding sympathy and regrouping over the border in Pakistan's mountainous tribal districts.

The Pashtun tribes on both sides of the border share the Taliban's ethnicity and their fury at the perceived sidelining of Pashtuns from the new administration.