KABUL (BNO NEWS) — An American service member was killed after an explosion in southern Afghanistan on Monday, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.

ISAF and the U.S. military said the service member was killed as a result of an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in the country’s south, but provided no further details.

Also on Monday, ISAF released more details about an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan on Saturday that killed two U.S. Marines. Previously, ISAF had only said they were killed following an insurgent attack.

But on Monday, ISAF said the U.S. Marines were killed during a prisoner escape attempt at a detention facility in southern Afghanistan. “The prisoner escaped a room where he was observing prayer time, acquired a rifle and subsequently engaged Afghan and coalition forces,” ISAF said.

The alliance said the U.S. Marines died while they were trying to subdue the prisoner. “The prisoner was later shot and killed by small-arms fire,” the alliance added.

Coalition casualties in Afghanistan have been rising sharply this year, with around 90 service members being killed in July alone. It was the deadliest month for U.S. forces since the war began on October 7, 2001 in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

On September 11, 2001, two hijacked airliners crashed into both towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. Another airliner crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., while a fourth crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) eventually declared that the attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people from scores of countries, was considered an attack on all NATO nations. The NATO-backed war aims to defeat the Taliban and other insurgent groups in the country.

On Sunday, two American service members were killed as a result of an IED attack in southern Afghanistan. In a separate IED attack, another American was killed.

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