Kabul  - A British soldier serving with NATO-led international troops was killed by "enemy fire" in southern Afghanistan, and the Taliban claimed they had downed a US military helicopter in eastern region, officials said Sunday.

The British soldier was killed in a fight with Taliban insurgents while he was on a joint foot patrol with Afghan forces close to the district centre of Sangin, in southern province of Helmand, British defence ministry said in a statement.

Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousif Ahmadi, speaking from an undisclosed location by phone, claimed that their fighters killed four British soldiers during the gunbattle.

The recent death brought the total number of UK soldiers killed in Afghanistan since their deployment some seven years ago to 142.

The soldier was killed on Saturday, the day that two more NATO-led US soldiers also lost their lives.

One US soldier was killed and six others were wounded in a suicide attack in the center of Kabul city on Saturday morning. The attack which took place in front of German embassy also left four Afghan civilians dead and more than 30 others wounded.

The second soldier was killed after their CH-47 helicopter, with seven members aboard, made a hard-landing in eastern Konar province. Though the cause of the crash was under investigation, US military said that small arms fire was present at the time of the incident.

The Taliban spokesman for the eastern region, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed on Sunday that their fighters shot down the helicopter and that all US soldiers aboard died in the crash.

Also on Saturday, a suicide bomber targeted a US military convoy in eastern Nangarhar province, but this time left no casualties among he troops. The blast killed the bomber, an Afghan civilian and wounded nine other Afghans including three policemen and the rest civilians.

Afghan and nearly 70,000 international forces are facing a new spate of attacks waged by Taliban militants this year following the bloodiest year so far in 2008.

More than 290 foreign soldiers were killed in violence in Afghanistan last year, marking it the deadliest year for the international troops since the fall of Taliban regime in late 2001.

This year, with 17 foreign soldiers killed, has already been ominous for the NATO-led troops in Afghanistan. Taliban militants usually went back to their rear bases inside Pakistani tribal areas during the winter in the previous years, but the insurgents claim that they have extended their writ to larger swathes of the country now and have vowed to continue their insurgency without any break.

NATO and Afghan military officials have also admitted that the fight against Taliban would be ongoing throughout the winter months.

Up to 30,000 additional US troops are expected to arrive to Afghanistan in coming months so that they could enable NATO's strength in the country to make a breakthrough in their fight against the insurgents this year following two years of stalemate. dpa