American is killed by bomb in Afghanistan

The grim milestone comes as the top US commander prepares to submit his assessment of the conflict - a report expected to trigger intense debate on the Obama administration’s strategy in an increasingly unpopular war.

The latest death was reported as Afghan officials announced an 80 percent increase in the number of major fraud allegations submitted after last week’s disputed presidential election - a sign of the deep challenges facing the United States and its allies in shoring up a legitimate Afghan government capable of withstanding the Taliban insurgency, corruption, and drug trafficking.

A brief statement by the NATO command gave few details of the blast and did not say precisely where it occurred. US military spokeswoman Captain Elizabeth Mathias said the service member who died was American.

That brought to 45 the number of US service members killed this month in the Afghan war - one more than the previous monthly record, set in July.

American casualties have been rising steadily following President Obama’s decision to send 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan to combat a resurgent Taliban and train Afghan security forces to assume a greater role in battling the insurgents.

Obama’s decision was part of a strategic shift in the US war against international Islamic extremism - moving resources from Iraq, which had been center stage since the 2003 US-led invasion but where violence has declined sharply from levels of two years ago.

A record 62,000 US troops are now in the country, with 4,000 more due before year’s end. That compares with about 130,000 in Iraq, most due to leave next year.

Since the fresh troops began arriving in Afghanistan last spring, US deaths have climbed steadily - from 12 in May to more than 40 for the past two months as American forces have taken the fight to the Taliban in areas of the country that have long been under insurgent control.

At least 732 US service members have died in the Afghan war since the invasion of late 2001. Nearly 60 percent of those deaths occurred since the Taliban insurgency began to rebound in 2007.

The latest spike in US deaths has raised doubts among the United States and its allies about the course of the war, which was launched by the Bush administration after the Taliban government refused to hand over Osama bin Laden for his role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States.

A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found that just over 50 percent of the American respondents said the war in Afghanistan was not worth fighting. Antiwar sentiment is also growing in Britain following a spike in deaths among British forces in Afghanistan.

The debate over the war is likely to accelerate when the new top commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, submits an assessment of the conflict by the end of this month.

McChrystal, who commanded special operations troops in Iraq, is expected to give a bleak assessment of the war, pointing to deficiencies in the Afghan government and recommending vastly expanding the size of Afghanistan’s own security forces.

Those weaknesses in the Afghan government have come into sharp focus since the flawed Aug. 20 presidential election, which produced allegations of widespread fraud - most leveled by opponents of President Hamid Karzai.

Final results are not expected for weeks, but preliminary figures released this week show Karzai leading the 36-candidate field with 44.8 percent of the vote, followed by ex-Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah with 35.1 percent. A runoff must be held if no candidate wins more than 50 percent. Abdullah has accused Karzai of rigging the election, a charge the incumbent denies.