2 US service members killed in Taliban ‘roadside blast’ in Afghanistan's Kandahar
A roadside explosion has killed two American forces in southern Afghanistan and injured another two, with the Taliban claiming the incident.
The forces were conducting a patrol in Kandahar Province on Saturday, when their armored vehicle bumped into an improvised explosive device, the Western military alliance of NATO said on Saturday.
Reuters cited a senior Afghan military official in Kandahar as saying that the incident had taken place in the province’s district of Dand.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter that the blast had destroyed the vehicle and killed all its occupants.
The names of the fatalities “will be withheld until 24 hours after notification of next of kin is complete," the NATO Resolute Support mission said in a statement.
More than 2,400 US service members have been killed in Afghanistan.
Last year was the deadliest in five years for the US in Afghanistan, with 23 American troops killed in the country.
The US invaded the Central Asian country after the September 11, 2001 attacks under the banner of seeking to fight “terror” thousands of kilometers away from its own borders.
The invasion deposed the Taliban, but the group has never ceased its operations across Afghanistan, and has vowed to keep up its attacks until the withdrawal of all US-led forces.
The US began on-again-off-again negotiations with the militants under President Donald Trump. The Taliban, however, abandoned the talks, citing lack of resolve on the part of Washington to end the military intervention.
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