* YOU BEEN SNAP*Now that's what you call cattle class: U.S. troops file into cramped carrier plane for 1,000 mile flight to Afghanistan"

BY FLORA LYIMO DESIGNER* 

These pictures show U.S. troops travelling 'cattle class' to Afghanistan - a day before five of their colleagues were killed in a suicide bomb.
The soldiers filed onto the plane from a fuel depot in neighbouring in Kyrgyzstan where they had been staying for a number of days.
The small Arab country has been locked in a dispute about who should supply jet fuel to the US transit centre Manas some 19 miles away.

Close contact: US soldiers sit in rows of five with more colleagues lining the side of the plane as they travel 'cattle class' from Kyrgyzstan to Afghanistan

The troops from  the 234th Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kansas, appeared relaxed as they sat in ordered lines inside the craft.
They were preparing to fly the 1,000 miles from Kyrgyzstan to Afghanistan where forces have been locked in combat.
The flight came a day before Taliban suicide bomber wearing an army uniform killed five foreign troops and four Afghan soldiers on Saturday in a brazen attack at the Afghan army's eastern headquarters.
It was the deadliest single incident this year against foreign forces in war-torn Afghanistan and comes amid a wave of suicide attacks on security targets, three months before foreign forces start a limited pullback.

Filing in: The troops from the 234th Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kansas walked single-file into the plane before the 1,000 mile flight

Take-off: The rows of troops dressed in their army uniforms and carrying weapons appeared relaxed before heading into the battle zone

On duty: The troops marched through a U.S. fuel depot near Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan where officials are disputing who should supply the air force's jet fuel

The latest strike was at an army base in the Gambiri desert area in Laghman province, near Jalalabad city, the de facto capital of Afghanistan's east.
'Five International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) service members died following an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan today,' ISAF said in a statement.
ISAF spokesman Major Tim James confirmed that the deaths came in the attack on the Afghan army base, but could not comment on the nationalities of those killed, in line with policy.
There were more than 100 ISAF troops at the base, primarily tasked with mentoring the Afghan army, James said.
Afghanistan's defence ministry said that four Afghan army personnel were killed and eight people were wounded, including four translators.
Spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi added that the ministry was investigating the possibility that the attacker was a member of the Afghan army, rather than someone who had simply bought a uniform for the attack.

Alert: Afghan forces secure the entrance of the police headquarters after a Taliban suicide attack killed a police chief and two bodyguards on Friday, a day before five U.S. soldiers were killed

Fire: Flames rise from a building in Kandahar, southern Afghanistan, after an earlier attack on a police training centre. There were no causalities in the blast

Response: Three U.S. Army soldiers speak among themselves near another suicide bomb blast site in Kandahar where three civilians, including two women, were injured

'We cannot totally rule out the possibility right away. It takes time to do some investigations,' Azimi said.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to AFP.
The blast came a day after the provincial police chief of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, Khan Mohammad Mujahid, was killed in a suicide bombing claimed by the Taliban in which his two bodyguards also died.
Today's attack is thought to be the worst single attack against foreign forces since December, when six US troops were killed in a blast at an outpost in Kandahar province.
There has been a recent spike in suicide bombings - a key Taliban tactic - in Afghanistan, with authorities reporting nine in the last few days.
About 130,000 international troops are stationed in Afghanistan, two-thirds of them from the United States, battling the Taliban and other insurgents.
Limited foreign troop withdrawals from seven relatively peaceful areas of the country are due to start in July.
However, the significance of these withdrawals has been increasingly played down by Western officials who instead stress the key date for the country's security will be 2014, when foreign combat operations are due to end.
Afghan forces are set to take increasing responsibility for security as foreign troops pull back.
Local security personnel are frequently the target of attacks by the Taliban, who have been fighting an insurgency since 2001 when a US-led invasion ousted them from power.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned at a NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Berlin on Thursday that nations involved in Afghanistan should not rush to the exit doors due to 'political expediency and short-term thinking'.
A total of 122 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan this year, according to an independent casualties website.
That compares to 711 for the whole of 2010, the highest annual total since 2001.
The worst fighting in Afghanistan usually comes in spring and summer and the fighting season is starting to get under way.