Mohammad Asim Asim, governor of Parwan province said an attacker on a motorcycle rammed a group of eight troops as they patrolled a village near Bagram Airfield.(Photo: Maya Alleruzzo, AP)
Six American service members were killed<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Monday in a suicide bombing during a meeting near<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a U.S. base north of Kabul, in the largest U.S. loss of life from an attack this year, according to two senior Defense officials.
The meeting<span style="color: Red;">*</span>was targeted by a motorcyclist carrying a bomb. In addition to the servicemembers killed,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>three were injured, according to NATO command headquarters in Afghanistan. The attack occurred outside a sprawling U.S. airbase in Bagram, located 34 miles north of Kabul.
The senior Defense officials who<span style="color: Red;">*</span>confirmed that all six dead were Americans were<span style="color: Red;">*</span>not authorized to speak publicly. One official<span style="color: Red;">*</span>confirmed the deaths, while the second confirmed they were killed during a meeting.
"We're deeply saddened by this loss," said U.S. Brig. Gen. Wilson Shoffner, deputy chief of staff for NATO operations communications in Afghanistan.
The six troops killed Monday equal the largest loss of life this year for the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan. On Oct. 2, six airmen died when their C-130 cargo plane crashed at Jalalabad. So far this year, 16<span style="color: Red;">*</span>U.S. troops have died in combat, many<span style="color: Red;">*</span>of them in aircraft crashes, according to Pentagon announcements.
The Taliban, which has been waging an insurgency against the U.S.-backed Afghan government, claimed responsibility in an email to AP. There are about 9,800 U.S.Troops in Afghanistan, part of a NATO force of 13,000.
Last week, the Pentagon announced in an update on<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Afghanistan that the security situation for the second half of 2015 had "deteriorated with an increase in effective insurgent attacks."
Defense Secretary Ash Carter toured the country over the weekend, meeting with his top commander there, Army Gen. John Campbell. The general described a "very tough year," in which Taliban and Islamic State fighters have been able to mount deadly attacks. Campbell estimated there are as many as 3,000 fighters from the Islamic State there.
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