Taliban roadside bomb kills US solider
An Afghan child watches German soldiers on patrol at Mazar-i Sharif on Saturday. Germany is the third biggest supplier of troops to the 130,000-strong NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) after the United States and Britain. A roadside bomb killed a US soldier with ISAF on Saturday in Kandahar.
The Taliban detonated a roadside bomb that killed an American soldier, 7 Afghan security officers and their translator late Saturday, news agencies reported today.
A US-led coalition force was attempting to defuse an improvised explosive device (IED) when the blast occurred, a local official told The Miami Herald.
“The Afghan security forces had received information about the IED, but when they reached the area the bomb was exploded by remote control,” Shah Mohammad Ahamdi said, according to the Herald.
No details were available regarding the identity of the American killed.
The blast happened in the village of Kohak in the Arghandab district of Kadahar province.
The German news agency DPA said the Taliban claimed responsibility.
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“Two foreign invaders, their translator and 2 infamous local police commanders perished in a deadly bomb blast,” the Taliban said in an online statement, according to DPA.
The Taliban had vowed revenge after a US soldier allegedly killed 17 Afghan villagers, including 8 children, earlier this month.
Staff Sgt. Robert Bales faces murder charges in the incident.
The dead were members of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force.
A similar blast on Saturday in Uruzgan province killed 5, including a former Afghan senator, The Associated Press said.
Khairo Jan, 3 bodyguards and another tribal leader died when another remotely controlled roadside bomb exploded.
Jan was a proponent for peace and development, the AP reported, citing the Uruzgan government office.
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