FORT CARSON, Colo. – Five Fort Carson soldiers, including one from northeast Indiana, were killed when their unit was attacked with an improvised bomb in Afghanistan, the Defense Department said Wednesday.

The soldiers killed in Monday’s attack were identified as Pfc. Chad D. Clements, 26, of Huntington; Capt. Dale A. Goetz, 43, of White, S.D.; Staff Sgt. Jesse Infante, 30, of Cypress, Texas; Staff Sgt. Kevin J. Kessler, 32, of Canton, Ohio; and Staff Sgt. Matthew J. West, 36, of Conover, Wis.

West was assigned to the 71st Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group. The others were part of the 4th Infantry Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team, which arrived in Afghanistan this summer.

The attack happened in the Arghandab River Valley, a lush and heavily mined Taliban stronghold.

Clements’ family in Huntington, told WTHR-TV that he died as a Humvee he was in was hit by an explosion near Kandahar.

West’s family in Michigan told the Traverse City Record-Eagle that the attack happened in the Arghandab River Valley.

Fort Carson, an Army post outside Colorado Springs, has suffered heavy losses in Afghanistan.

Eight Fort Carson soldiers were killed in an attack on a remote outpost in northeastern part of the country in October 2009.

As of late Tuesday, the U.S. death toll for Afghanistan in August stood at 56 – three-quarters of them in the second half of the month as the Taliban fought back against U.S. pressure in southern and eastern strongholds. American losses accounted for more than 70 percent of the 76 fatalities suffered by the entire NATO-led force.

Until the late month spike, it appeared that the death toll for August would be well below the back-to-back monthly records of 66 in July and 60 in June.