Taliban attack kills foreign trooper in Afghanistan

Afghan Taliban militants have killed a foreign soldier and wounded six others in an attack on a NATO patrol north of the Afghan capital of Kabul, the military coalition has confirmed.

The incident occurred in Qarabagh district in Kabul Province at about 0800 pm local time (1630 GMT) on Thursday.

The NATO said in a statement that the wounded were being treated at a military hospital in the Bagram airfield and were in stable condition.

The nationality of the soldier killed, whose identity was not being released until family members could be notified, was not clear.

However, a US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the soldier killed appeared not to be American, citing initial reports, but provided no further details and said that information could change as more details came in.

The Associated Press had earlier cited Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, as claiming responsibility for the attack.

The attack came a day after Taliban killed two American troops as they were traveling in a convoy near the airport in the southern city of Kandahar.

Father of captain of all-girl robotics team killed

Meanwhile, the father of the captain of a team of Afghan schoolgirls who won global fame competing in a robotics competition in the United States has died of wounds suffered in an attack on a Shia mosque in Herat.

Mohammad Asif Qaderyan, the father of Captain Fatemah Qaderyan, had been wounded in a Tuesday blast in the western city of Herat and died later, said Farhad Jelani, the provincial governor’s spokesman.

The attack was claimed by the Takifiri Daesh terrorist group, which is mainly active in Iraq and Syria.

The number of Daesh terrorist attacks in Afghanistan has recently increased following the group’s huge battle losses in the Middle East.

Last year, two bombers blew explosive belts during a rally in Kabul, killing at least 80 Shias.

The US-led invasion of Afghanistan was launched in 2001, and there are currently about 13,000 foreign soldiers from 39 countries on the ground in the Asian country.

The troops, who are mostly American, are part of a mission to train, advise, and assist Afghan soldiers during special operations.

US generals have described the Afghan conflict as a “stalemate” and have requested additional forces, while US President Donald Trump remains undecided on what to do.

“We are losing” in Afghanistan, Trump complained to top officials at a White House meeting last month.

Pentagon chief, Jim Mattis, told lawmakers back in June that he would present a detailed Afghanistan plan by mid-July, a deadline that came and went without a plan being offered.

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