News / Afghanistan

6 NATO troops killed in attack in Afghanistan’s Bagram

Monday, 21 December 2015 1:10 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 21 December 2015 2:38 PM ]

This November 1, 2014 file photo shows a US soldier looking on at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. (AFP photo)

At least six NATO soldiers, including three US troops, have been killed in an attack on a patrol near Bagram Air Base in the eastern Afghan province of Parwan.

Bagram District Governor Abdul Shukur Qudusi said on Monday that an attacker on a motorbike rammed it into a joint US-Afghan patrol near Bagram, killing six NATO troops, including three from the US, and injuring six other soldiers, including three with the Afghan police forces.

Officials in NATO headquarters in the capital Kabul confirmed the attack, saying they have launched an investigation into the incident.

The police chief of Parwan said more details could emerge of the foreign troops casualties in the coming hours, confirming that three Afghan police forces were also wounded in the attack.

Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, with spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claiming in a tweet that 19 US soldiers were killed near the military facility.

Washington kept around 9,800 US troops in Bagram, located around 40 km (25 miles) north of Kabul, after it decided to pull out the bulk of its forces from Afghanistan last year.

The attack on foreign troops comes more than a week after Taliban targeted a guesthouse of the Spanish embassy in Kabul and another air base in the southern province of Kandahar.

Taliban on Sunday tightened its grip on the southern province of Helmand by taking control of the district of Sangin. Officials later said the group had taken control of all police and military installations in the area adding Helmand was on brink of falling to the militants.

The US and its allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but after 14 years, militants are continuing their deadly attacks across the country.

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