KABUL: Six Americans have been killed and three other people injured in a
Taliban suicide attack near Bagram airbase in Afghanistan that coincided with a fierce militant offensive to capture a key district in the country’s south.
US secretary of defense Ash Carter confirmed Monday that all of the dead were members of US armed services. “We are still learning all of the details, but two other service members and a US contractor were also injured,” Carter said.
“They died after a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device attack on their patrol outside Bagram airbase. It serves as a painful reminder of the dangers our troops face every day in Afghanistan.”
A Nato spokesman said the attack happened at about 1.30pm local time in the vicinity of the airbase, which is the biggest US military facility in Afghanistan.
Local Afghan officials said a suicide bomber on a motorbike attacked a joint US-Afghan patrol as they were patrolling on foot through the village of Bajawryan. A member of the provincial council said a similar suicide attack against foreign soldiers based at Bagram about two months ago had failed to cause any casualties.(The Guardian)