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Subscribe to RSSKHOST, Afghanistan -- Three U.S. service members, their Afghan interpreter and 17 Afghan civilians were killed by an apparent suicide bomber on a motorbike in the eastern Afghan city of Khost Wednesday, officials said.
The United States Embassy in Afghanistan issued a statement saying it "strongly condemns this cowardly attack," which is the second on foreign forces in the troubled province this month.
A U.S. official, speaking anonymously to The Associated Press, said the foreign troops killed were Americans.
However, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said the nationality of the troops would not immediately be confirmed.
A local official told NBC News that women and children were among the civilian casualties in the attack, aimed at an American-Afghan military convoy passing through the town.
The official said the death toll was likely to rise, and that 32 Afghans suffered injuries.
Msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
ENOUGH is ENOUGH !!
GET our TROOPS HOME !
R.I.P Brave Soldiers
I think we need to start double condemning these things...the regular condemning isn't working.
But it was strongly condemned, may they need a new interpreter.
So, where is the apology from the Afghan government?
It's in the box with the polio vaccinations.
Was it BRAVERY when you SLAUGHTERED the NATIVE AMERICANS, who were armed with only BOWS and ARROWS, into near EXTINCTION? You only take on the WEAK - not the STRONG like the USSR or CHINA. YOU are the REAL COWARDS.
awabnavi is a Troll. Posts explosive comments, but will not carry on a conversation. Just a Troll. Just ignore.
Burn in hell with your 69 virgin goats! Who hijacked planes and flew them into our civilians' killing thousands? Who keeps using suicide bombers to kill all of these people? Who are terrorists? I don't know if you personally are and I hope you are not. I feel for the people of the mid-east and I want the wars to stop! I don't believe in killing but at some point we are going to get pissed and Hillary is going to urge the Pres into nuking the entire region!!!
awabnavi,
I'm not condoning this war or any war not declared by our congress. However, if you are in this country, you need to get the hell out. I would love to get my hands on you.
awabnavi, that's why we are taking YOU on. You are weak, sick, donkey f*cking fools.
awabnavi, I'd love to meet you down range! US won wars against the Brits, Nazis and managed to beat USSR (albeit without a fight) Notice how that country doesn't exist anymore???? Our country defended S. Korea against the Chinese and pushed Hussein out of Kuwait. Prevented the continuous slaughter of innocent civilians in Kosovo and now beat Taliban into submission for what they did on 9/11. This war has NOTHING to do with religion at all. It has to do with cowards that blend in with civilians and then complain when civilians get hit. Cowards that hide behind women and children. Cowards that use tactics like sending in mentally challenged children with suicide vests on. COWARDS!
awabnavi: If Native Americans hadn't sided over and over with the British they would not have been marked for extinction. They also knew nothing about treatment of prisoners which is why England went out of their way to enlist them against the colonies. These one liners of yours are not persuasive. After making war on the colonies the natives went back to life while the colonists printed volumes about the native's atrocities, so Indians had no friends in America.
I love how they "soften" the tally by saying "17 Afghanis were killed" against out mere 3 killed.
Well well with those kind of numbers it's like we had no losses whatsoever!..
I HATE THIS FUUUUCKIN WAR!
get our @!$%#en troops ou tof the middle east,not one person on this planet agrees tot his false war,we are losing peoples kids here every single day,get our troops home now.
Ron Paul was our only hope for getting out of this senseless war.
I wish Ron Paul could get us out. Obama said he would by his second year in office - another change of no change.
Bring our children home Obama! - you said you would....!!!!! Hope and change? Where is the hope?
Srich, is that acid thrown into your face in the picture? No? Why do you want your fellow females in Afghanistan to have acid throw into thier faces?
Women in Afghanistan are making HUGE progress, thanks to the West. I just wish we would train Divisions of them to go out and kick their brother's asses. But no....this would end the war and Karzai would not allow that.
YOU actually believe in the PRESIDENT'S PROMISES ?
GET our TROOPS home PRONTO !!
Pull out the troops, send in the B52s. Send them the rest of the way into the stone age. Or, send in one of our hate-groups; tell them "If you take it, you can keep it." They say they want their own country, let them have one.
I agree with Awab. Guys in tank tops, flip flops, without a dollar to their name who are willing to kill themselves for their country does not sound very cowardly to me. Add to the fact that they go out and fight the most militarily advanced countries in the history of the earth and it makes it even less so that they're cowardly. Add to the fact that NATO uses armored tanks, carriers, ballistic missles, helicopters, planes, body armor, as well as UNMANNED DRONES that kill people they can hardly see makes it absolute nonsense that the Taliban are "cowards". If they're "cowards" then we are scared little children pissing our pants.
Coward:
Noun: A person who lacks the courage to do or endure dangerous or unpleasant things.
Hmm, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say dropping bombs from planes and drones 30,000 feet up is done to prevent "dangerous or unpleasant things" by ground troops. Sounds like they must be cowards. Taliban on the other hand, well they've made it quite clear they have no issues "enduring dangerous or unpleasant things"
Mo 0808: Taliban on the other hand, well they've made it quite clear they have no issues "enduring dangerous or unpleasant things" Uh Mo, the Taliban is from the stone age. These "missing links" have no other choice but to grind it out with donkeys. AND I DO MEAN GRIND. I've seen a few pictures from BlackHawk Helicopters showing your boys "having at it" with a donkey. Glad I'm not you.
Are we still fighting for freedom and democracy? This war will stop when those soldiers decide that it's better to go AWOL than to die for some politicians's war. As Julius Caesar said 2000 years ago:"
"Beware of those who beat the drums of war in the name of patriotism."
Eddie, don't forget that every single service member signed up voluntarily! We all knew the risks before we raised our hand and signed on the dotted line. I don't see many people (if any) going AWOL anytime soon. And I hope you thank your lucky stars for that, because the minute there is mutiny in the ranks, your freedom and democracy are as good as gone!
" I would love to get my hands on you" --- I bet you would. MURDER and GENOCIDE are in your GENES.
awabnavi is a troll. His English is way too good for a real Taliban. He's probably some pimple-faced kid in a US suburb somewhere, probably California.
I think your right. He needs to stay in school and learn some history.
You're damn right!
The Headline Reads Three US Troops by definition A troop is a military unit, originally a small force of cavalry, subordinate to a squadron and headed by the troop leader.
When will the media get it right people around the world must think our media people are idiots.
Granted they correct them selves by saying in the article three US Servicemen.
It sucks that they are still there they should all be sent back to the States and let those idiots kill each other off like they have been doing for thousands of years.
Time to get out of Afghanistan, we should have years ago but especially since Osama was found and taken out last year. We trade body counts, spend billions and for what? We call their sucide bombers cowardly, they call our UAVs and drone attacks cowardly. It is assymetric warfare and they will wait us out. What we save by leaving ASAP, are lives and taxpayer money for a country that doesn't benefit much from us being there except infrastructure paid for by the USA and we have to bribe their officials to let us build their country up. Insane.
To HELL with these RADICAL MUSLIMS who do this kind of thing in the name of ALLAH!!! I say we get out of that corrupt nation of Afghanistan and let these FOOLS destroy each other until they are EXTINCT!! OBAMA is NOT far from being just like any one of these folks. OBAMA is a DANGEROUS......BIGOTED.....CORRUPT......LYING.....SICK, TWISTED.....BRAINWASHED individual. It would not surprise me at all when OBAMA loses the White House in November we don't find him over there soon after!!!
Look, I'm no fan of the Taliban, but it doesn't make much sense to start calling them words that clearly don't make any logical sense. I think better words to describe the Taliban would be twisted, misguided, brutal, and extreme. (But in comparison with NATO countries, it's also hard not to attribute these exact same words to them)
Hmm, I guess it turns out we really aren't much different at all than the Taliban. Of course I've come to this conclusion years ago, and it's obviously true (we're all people) but the hate mongers on these message boards are FAR too stupid to actually understand the dynamics of life and conflict.
The trouble is people don't look beyond their noses. They can only see the faults of others not their own. So sorrowful.
I get the fact they want to kill us troops but why hurt civilians ? What kind of logic is that ? I will kill 3 infidels but take 20 of my own with me...
Lets not forget, that this war was not one we started. It was those that were harbored by Taliban that killed 3,000 of our civilians. This war is just and they brought it on themselves. I am sorry for the loss of our soldiers. Many of them died because of the restrain our military uses to ensure that we don't kill innocent civilians in Afghanistan. Yes we have better weapons, but we also have more restraint. If we played by their rules there would be no more Afghanistan. But we don't, we are a civilized society and an honorable army. And for that, unfortunately, we pay a price with the lives of our soldiers.
Afganistan is lost. Pretty soon the soldiers left there will be forgotten.
you may forget about them, but there are those who will remember the biggest and best group of heros ever, the US Military.
whats heroic about attacking goat farmers.
They do need to bring them home. And it's not goat farmers they are attacking. That said, these farmers are becoming a new breeding ground for Taliban and other radical terrorists. I just don't think you could drag Afghanistan out of the 1st century.
My sympathies to the families of our fallen troops.
I don't give a crap about the Afghans.
Suicide bombing has no connection to bravery at all. It is about greed. They are people who bought a bad bill of goods, were promised that they would be rewarded with a wagonload of virgins and all kinds of other crap, and they are willing to kill unsuspecting women and children to get it.
If they were told that, once they blow themselves to bits, they are going to burn in hell like the sorry kawksuckers that they are, there would be a lot less of these idiots going to Starbucks with dynamite crammed up their ass.
Noticed that the Al-Queda Leadership and Taliban Despotic Leaders only ask OTHERS to go on Suicide Bombings. Not so brave to ask another to go on a suicide bomb while living in a Villa in Pakistan protected by a few member's of Pakistan's Secret Police.
Our prayers are with our Solider heros, the Translator hero, and Afghan Civilians terrorized by these Genocidal Bombers. Only good is that the Soliders will rest in peace in heaven while the Genocidal Bomber rots in hell.
Where's Karzai's denunciation?
These folks are hopeless. Karzai is up to his eyeballs complicit with the Taliban.
We need to get out, and let them kill each other. The world will be better off.
As a child, my Dad always said. It's better to tell the truth instead of lying. I admit, I'm not the smartest person. We are told we are still in Afghastan because of training the Afghastan soldiers. Over 160,000 already trained. Wouldn't you think Afghastan could take 1000 of these Afghastan soldiers on training the remaining trainees? Sending our troops home today?
Just be honest on the real reasons we are still in Afghastan. Is it because of questions with Iran?Is it we want a Air Force Base in Afghastan? Whatever it is, quit this garbage about training the Afghastan soldiers.We're not dumb, we know that the Taiban will possibly take back the government after we leave. We have our history books documented where Bush Jr. told the Taiban they could stay in charge of the Afghastan government, if they would turn over Bin-Laden and afew Alqueda leaders. They said no and we went to war with them. Well Bin-Laden is gone and many Alqueda leaders are gone now. Face it, we could stay a hundred years and still not declare us a winner of this backward country. The only thing we are accomplishing is getting some Generals stars and losing some of our brave soldiers. My god, bring the troops home.
Why are US troops in this graveyard of empires? Please no more lies, they dishonor the dead, past as well as future.
Yeah, like there is no reason for us to be there at all. None.