2 GIs Die in Afghanistan; U.S. Says Rebels Plot Against Vote

KABUL, Afghanistan —  Two American soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan on Monday, as U.S. military officials reported that Al Qaeda and Taliban militants had held recent high-level meetings in Pakistan to discuss ways of derailing next month’s Afghan elections.

The soldiers, who were not named because their relatives had not yet been notified, died in an exchange of gunfire in the southeastern province of Paktika along the Pakistani border, the U.S. military in Kabul, the capital, said.

Two other American soldiers and six Afghan troops were injured and sent to the Camp Salerno military base in neighboring Khowst province.

Meanwhile, a spokesman here for American-led forces said Al Qaeda, Taliban and Hizb-i- Islami militants held meetings and debates in Pakistan on the elections and on how to counter military operations by Western troops in Afghanistan and by Pakistani forces along the border.

“There have been several meetings between Taliban, Al Qaeda and [Hizb-i-Islami] members in Pakistan where they’ve raised serious concerns” about how best to attack the Oct. 9 presidential election, said Army Maj. Scott Nelson, the spokesman, citing intelligence reports. “They talk, but I don’t know how cohesive their strategies are.”

Nelson said the meetings were held between “relatively high-ranking” militants.