Kabul, September 30 (RHC)-- A soldier serving with the U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has died as a result of a non-battle cause in the violence-plagued northern Afghanistan. 

The NATO-led Resolute Support (RS) mission said in a statement on Wednesday that the latest death is not related to the ongoing unrest and skirmishes in the Asian country’s northern province of Kunduz, where Taliban militants have taken full control of the provincial capital city.  NATO did not provide the name and the nationality of the soldier. 

The military alliance’s so-called Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan, consisting of 13,000 foreign soldiers, was launched on January 1, 2015 with the declared aim of training Afghan forces and counter-terrorism operations.  It replaced NATO’s combat mission in Afghanistan, which officially ended its activities last December. 

At least eleven service members of the Resolute Support, including eight U.S. soldiers, have lost their lives since the beginning of this year.