Taliban claims Afghanistan bombing which left 6 U.S. troops dead

CBS

(CBS/AP) KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S. officials confirm to CBS News that a roadside bombing Sunday in eastern Afghanistan killed six American service members - a blast which the Taliban claimed responsibility for on Monday morning.

The statement from Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the soldiers died when their tank ran over a bomb around 8 p.m. Sunday in Wardak province, south of Kabul.

NATO would not disclose the nationalities of the service members killed, but officials confirmed to CBS News correspondent David Martin that they were American.

Wardak provincial police chief Gen. Abdul Qayum Baqizoi said after the blast in Jalrez district, a coalition air strike killed a local Taliban commander and wounded three insurgents.

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Also in the east, authorities said a chief prosecutor in Ghazni province was assassinated Monday morning as he drove to work. The Taliban routinely target Afghan government officials.

In addition to the six U.S. deaths, bombs and attacks killed 16 Afghan civilians, five policemen and two members of the U.S.-led coalition in southern Afghanistan, Afghan and NATO authorities said.

The civilians, including women and children, were killed in three blasts in Arghistan district, along Afghanistan's border with Pakistan.

Kandahar province spokesman Ahmad Jawed Faisal said one bomb exploded when a minivan ran over it Sunday morning. A second went off when other civilians riding a tractor arrived to help the wounded. A third explosion occurred about two hours later when a civilian vehicle hit a roadside bomb in another area of the district, killing two women.

At least 10 civilians were injured in the three blasts.

According to the United Nations, last year was the deadliest on record for civilians in the Afghan war, with 3,021 killed. The number of Afghan civilians killed dropped 36 percent in the first four months of this year compared with last year, but the U.N. says that too many are still being caught up in violence.

Separately, two NATO service members were killed in southern Afghanistan — one in a roadside bomb explosion on Saturday and the other during an insurgent attack on Sunday.

NATO did not disclose where the incidents occurred or provide the nationalities of the soldiers killed.

So far this year, more than 225 NATO service members have been killed in Afghanistan.

[TimeToEvolve]

We are too stupid (and maybe primitive and violent as a species) to learn from history, like what happened to the Russian in Afghanistan.

Of course the whole thing was started for oil and the oil companies like Chevron and Exxon don't care how many people die. As long as they are profiting from it. None of their people have to fight and die.

[fiddlestickawshucks]

Six more reasons to get the hell out of Afghanistan.!!!

How many more fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers have to lose their lives defending a country whose leader is a doule-dealing terrorist.

Obama, Congress, the DOD all need to be reminded daily that the blood of those killed is on their hands.

To make life even more interesting for our troops in Afghanistan, many have to worry about losing their homes to foreclosure and their families getting assistance with food and housing here at home.

It's DISGUSTING and DISGRACEFUL the way our government treats our troops.

I found out recently every soldier whos returns to the US has to account for every piece of equipment provided them when they go into battle has to be accounted for.

If they lose anything while they are being ambushed, blown up by IED's and slaughtered on their own bases by renegade Afghans; THEY HAVE TO PAY FOR IT.!!!

Like they don't have enough to worry about.

Obama is the Supreme Commander of the United States Armed Forces.

Maybe if he stopped giving multiple BILLIONS of dollars to countries who are our enemies every day, the military might be able to cover the cost themselves.

Obama, Congress, the DOD and the military all need their heads examined, because they are all apparently CERTIFIABLY insane.

The disaster here in the US is almost beyond belief.!!

Yet the American people allow Obama and Congress to take us further down the path to our own destruction.

I will never understand why Americans do not stage protests like the people in other countries do when they know they are being screwed.

Do something, do anything, do everything you can think of to put an end to all this bullcrap.!!!

[smittyc]

The six Americans dead highlight the sterility of the Clinton foreign diplomacy. The execution of the "adulteress" caught on film highlights the sterility of Clintons efforts in Afghanistan. We have been in Afghanistan for more than a decade and in the last four years things have gotten worse than ever. Our mission was Al Queada and now we have divided the people of Afghanistan into two groups resulting in everyone running around killing each other. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced, lost their homes and have no safe haven.

[Dancing-in-the-Streets]

You lost me there.....how was it The Clinton's that started that war, when Bush was in office?

And how in the HELL does the accusation of an affair have ANYTHING to do with it??? : /

[Dancing-in-the-Streets]

CBS - do you THINK about what you put families thru when you release something like this???

If you can't put the names of those killed, hold onto the story until you can!

[usunus]

This is the country that Obama and Hillary Clinton have made a non-NATO ally of the U.S and pledged to support it beyond the American troop withdrawal in 2014.

[taxed01]

I like dead taliban. More the better.

[dh47]

Geeze, this must mean VP Biden was wrong, he said the Taliban was NOT our enemy.

[mysteriousjz]

President Ronald Reagan, honoring Afghan "freedom fighters" at the White House in 1983: "The Afghan Mujaheddin are the moral equivalent of the Founding Fathers of America."
---------
"To watch the courageous Afghan freedom fighters battle modern arsenals with simple hand-held weapons is an inspiration to those who love freedom."
- U.S. President Ronald Reagan, March 21, 1983

[jklombardi]

"Charlie Wilsons War", was a good movie, but it was a great book. We have crazy people working the CIA.