An attack on a NATO convoy has left 13 American troops dead in Kabul, Afghanistan. The bombing occurred early on Saturday and was the result of a suicide car bomber. The Taliban is claiming responsibility for the deadly attack. Three Afghan citizens and one Afghan police officer were also killed in the bombing. Read more after the jump.
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A U.S. official says all 13 NATO service members killed in a suicide bombing in the Afghan capital were American troops.
The official confirmed the nationalities shortly after NATO issued a statement saying that 13 of its forces were killed in Saturday’s blast. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which also killed four Afghans, including a policeman.
A suicide car bomber struck a NATO convoy on the outskirts of Kabul on Saturday.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred near Darulaman Palace, the bombed-out seat of former Afghan kings on the southwest outskirts of the capital. It was the deadliest of two attacks in the day that targeted either the U.S.-led coalition or Afghan government offices in the country.
“Initial reports indicate that there has been a vehicle-borne IED attack today against a coalition vehicle in Kabul,” NATO said in a statement, using military terminology for a car bomb. The alliance said “several” of its service members were among the casualties of the attack, but provided no other details.
The Afghan Ministry of Interior said three Afghan civilians and one Afghan police were killed. The Taliban claim came shortly after the attack in a text message to media outlets.
An Associated Press reporter on the scene said that NATO and Afghan forces had sealed off the area. Two NATO helicopters landed to airlift casualties. The back end of a NATO bus appeared to have been blown apart and was turned into a charred shell.
Earlier Saturday, a female suicide bomber blew herself up as she tried to attack a local government office in the capital of Kunar province, a hotbed of militancy in northeast Afghanistan along the Pakistan border.
Abdul Sabor Allayar, deputy provincial police chief, said the guards outside the government’s intelligence office in Asad Abad became suspicious of the woman and started shooting, at which point she detonated her explosives.
Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces conducted operations earlier this month, killing more than 100 insurgents in an effort to curb violence in rugged areas of Kunar where the coalition and Afghan government have a light footprint.
Farther south along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, Afghan and coalition forces captured two leaders of the Haqqani network and two other suspected insurgents in Sarobi district of Paktika province, the coalition said.
Haqqani fighters, who are affiliated with the Taliban and al-Qaida, are heavily rooted in Paktika and neighboring Paktia and Khost provinces.
One of the captured leaders provided insurgent fighters with funding, weapons, supplies and hideouts, and the other coordinated attacks against Afghan forces, the coalition said.
Fox
