KABUL, Afghanistan — In one of the deadliest attacks against American forces in Afghanistan this year, a Taliban suicide bomber on a motorcycle drove into a military convoy near Bagram Air Base on Monday, killing six American soldiers, a United States official said.
The attack came as Taliban forces have continued grabbing territory across Afghanistan,
dragging more American troops directly into the fight despite commanders’ continued insistence that the focus of the NATO force remains on training and advising. As the battle intensified this fall, the Obama administration even
reversed plans to begin withdrawing troops this year, instead choosing to leave the 9,800-American force in Afghanistan through at least 2016.
The Taliban suicide bomber struck a joint patrol of American and Afghan troops was moving through a village near Bagram Air Base, a sprawling base north of Kabul that is manned largely by American service members and contractors, the United States official said. Another two Americans were wounded in the bombing, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the Pentagon had not yet publicly confirmed that those killed on Monday were American.
