A bomb attack has claimed the life of a US-led soldier in southern Afghanistan as foreign forces encounter a climbing number of deadly attacks in the war-ravaged country.

A bomb attack has claimed the life of a US-led soldier in southern Afghanistan as foreign forces encounter a climbing number of deadly attacks in the war-ravaged country.

NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) announced in a statement that the bomb blast took place on Sunday, Xinhua reported.

"An International Security Assistance Force service member died following an improvised explosive device attack in southern Afghanistan today," the statement said.

It did not reveal the circumstances of the death or the nationality of the dead soldier.

The latest casualty brings to 171 the number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan in 2011, according to icasualties.org.

Meanwhile, in a recent US-led military operation in Afghanistan, invading foreign troops have killed four Afghan women in the eastern Kunar Province, witnesses say.

Afghan villagers say the four women were killed in the US shelling of houses, a Press TV correspondent reported.

The deadly incident is the latest report of civilian targeting by US-led forces in Kunar.

In May, a US-led airstrike in Kunar killed nine children, aged between seven and nine, that were collecting firewood.

Thousands of Afghan people have so far lost their lives as a result of military operations by the foreign troops since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Afghan officials, including President Hamid Karzai, have repeatedly condemned the persisting killing of civilians by US-led troops in the country and urged its immediate halt.