Afghan blast kills 10, including 3 U.S. soldiers

Afghan policemen inspect the site of a suicide attack in Maymana, the capital of Faryab province, north of Kabul on April 4, 2012. / Getty

(CBS/AP) KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban are claiming responsibility for a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan today that killed at least 10 people, including three American soldiers.

The attack took place at a park in a relatively peaceful area of northern Afghanistan.

The Taliban have increasingly been targeting Afghan and NATO security forces as they try to assert their power and undermine U.S. efforts to build up the Afghan military.

NATO said only that three of its service members were killed in a bombing. But a senior U.S. defense official confirms that the three dead were Americans. Norway and Germany, which have troops in northern Afghanistan, say none of their soldiers were involved.

Militants are targeting Afghan and NATO security forces as they fight to assert their power and undermine U.S. efforts to try to build up the Afghan military, who will take the lead in combat responsibility over the next couple of years.

Shortly before noon, the bomber detonated his explosives at the gate of the park in Maimanah, the capital of Faryab province, police spokesman Lal Mohammad Ahmad Zai said. His target was unclear, but Zai said four of the 10 killed were Afghan police officers. At least 20 people were wounded, officials said.

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Initial reporting suggested there had been separate attacks Wednesday, which would have accounted for the discrepancy, but NATO has confirmed it was investigating just one attack in the country's north.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that the three NATO troops were U.S. soldiers were killed, citing an anonymous defense official in Washington.

Norway and Germany, which commands alliance operations in northern Afghanistan, said none of their troops were involved. Troops of other nationalities also serve in the area — most of them at a Norwegian base that works on partnering with Afghan troops so that they can eventually take control of security in the region.

Associated Press video footage of the scene of the attack shows what appear to be dead Afghan civilians, police and foreign troops. Body parts are strewn around the gate and on the ground, which is spattered with blood.

Faryab is relatively calm but is a stronghold of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, or IMU, an al Qaeda affiliated group that has been most active in Afghanistan's northern provinces. The IMU was formed in 1991, originally aiming to set up an Islamic state in Uzbekistan, which borders Afghanistan. Later it expanded its goal to seeking an Islamic state across Central Asia.

On March 26, a joint Afghan and coalition force in Faryab killed the group's leader in Afghanistan, Makhdum Nusrat. The coalition said Nusrat had been leading attacks against Afghan and coalition troops in the north for the past eight months and was plotting the assassination of a member of parliament in Kabul.

Militants also have stepped up their attacks against international and Afghan troops nationwide in recent weeks.

Nine Afghan policemen were killed and 11 were abducted across the nation in the past three days.

Fighting in Afghanistan usually wanes during the winter months as Taliban fighters take a break because of winter weather, only to surge in the spring. Heavy snow covers many of the mountain passes used by the Taliban and other insurgent fighters to cross mainly into eastern Afghanistan from safe havens in neighboring Pakistan.

Anger against foreign forces also has risen following a series of missteps, including the inadvertent burning of copies of the Muslim holy book and other religious materials in February and the massacre of 17 Afghan civilians allegedly by a rogue U.S. soldier. Foreign troops also have found themselves increasingly targeted by members of the Afghan national security forces, or militants posing in their uniforms.

So far this year, 97 NATO service members have been killed in Afghanistan, including at least 55 Americans.

[Lionhart40]

I'm sorry to hear our guys got killed along with civilians. I'd like to know if there was ever a time when Afghan people took care of their own problems. Did their people always roll over and play dead, or get killed without going after them without involving anyone else. This is the new Vietnam of our time. Killers hiding among the people.

[308z]

If you bring them home they will all be on street corners begging for money. That doesn't look good in an election year, so we can't have that! After the election we will need them to invade more countries to keep the military machine going forever. Looks like our politicians are holding the troops there as prisoners of war. Our government exists to serve itself. The government is not your "friend."

[nfission]

Why are we still in Afghanistan? Any place will do as far as it is a perpetual war I suppose. We cannot kill our way to peace, for every Afghan or terrorist killed 50 more will take their place. The war profiteers have used our men and women to the fullest extent but I guess if you sign up the corporations see you as expendable. Do our troops know who they're really working for?

[ConSense]

Who they are working for is a large part of the reason for the current situation in Afghanistan. I guess Obama will have to move up the surrender date.

[UForgotPoland]

"Surrender date" sad to think you're willing to let Americans get killed just so you feel good about not "surrendering". If you're so bent on not giving up how about you enlist or urge your next of kin to?

[L_A_B]

So I guess this country will be sending the American families that lost their loved ones a check for wrongful death? Seems fair to me

[hooahmomx2]

PLEASE someone tell me why all the media does not report the deaths of our soldiers on the front page?? The American people have seem to forgotten our men and women in combat. Two days ago, 2 American soldiers were killed, I found out about it on facebook. This makes no sense to me...I have a son and daughter (and until recently, my husband) over there, and it kills me to see all the crap that gets so much attention, and nothing about what is still going on. If anyone has any suggestions on how we can put this back into the minds and thought of our people, please let me know.

[Robert_In_Texas]

Does anyone know or conject as to what the mission is of the US military in Afghanistan is, now that bin Lagen has been dead almost a year?

[ConSense]

Yes. We removed the talkiban government. We have a responsibility to see it replaced by a stable government that doesn't harbor terrorists. Unfortunately, we have made it clear that we're leaving, whether the job is done or not. The country will soon belong to the Taliban again.

[UForgotPoland]

We don't have any responsibility if the Afghan people don't want us there... It's their new sovereignty after all.