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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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Rest in peace troops, you gave all and for that I thank you.
Hey bdjb, powdered wigs are out dude. And, being an American means that I can post idiotic opinions without having to fight you to the death. It's in the constitution, which you signed dumb ass! I will say that reading your posts gives me painful, rectal itch however. Carry on, moron.
Some of these comments hurt. My husband is over there and it kills me to see this. Knowing that it could be him or some of our friends that are with him. This war needs to be over and our soldiers need to be home. Sitting at home and playing the waiting game is not fun and im doing it now. No one will ever know what someone goes through when reading these news reports until they have been through it. It makes you sick and you cant sleep. All you can do is hold your kids and your phones close because you are waiting on that one call that could change your whole entire world. I care for every soldier that has and has not stepped foot over there because they are the reason we can sleep at night. They risk their life for people that they dont even know and they get so little respect for it. But I will always stand up proud to say that I AM AN AMERICAN and a PROUD WIFE OF A UNITED STATES SOLDIER!!
Ditto!!! I am the proud mom ( my daughter) mother in law( married to my daughter who is there), aunt my nephew) and friend of soldier. They are ALL in Afghanistan right now. I hope to NEVER get that phone call either.
@Proud American Soldier: In my previous comments, I never meant to belittle the sacrifices you and your fellow soldiers are making in Afghanistan. True, some of you are on 2nd or 3rd tour of duty and trying to help people of Afghanistan. I, like other thousands of Americans truly appreciate your devotion to your country. My apology if I conveyed the wrong impression.
Thank goodness the U.S. Embassy made such a strong statement, the terrorists are shaking in their sandals.
They were soldiers. Not troops. Troops are groups of soldiers. See dictionary.com
The "war" in Afghanistan is a joke. The U.S. plays a very small part in what little actual combat goes on here. All these 10 years have been used for is getting our small worthless Euro allies some training in how to fight a war. I'm sure the U.S. actually tried to train the Afghan Army at one point but then realized you could make more progress teaching calculus to a 6th grade special needs class, so they still do it as a front while we finish up training our Euro friends and pull out.
It wasn't 'troops' that died, it was TROOPERS that died.
When is the stupid media going to stop playing on the ignorance of its readers, or better yet learn some grammatical skills, by using a word that implies that groups of US soldiers were killed. A 'troop' is GROUP of soldiers. A 'trooper' is a soldier belonging to a group (or 'unit').
I wonder if the retards in Sweden are ready to strip the socialist, war-mongering Hussein Obozo of his "Nobel peace prize" yet.
Let's all smoke a blunt, join in with a chorus of I'll never smoke weed with Willy again, then send all the politican's packing to Asskrackistan for a nine month vacation. We need to start all over, and build a new US based on the existing constitution without all the BS added to it since 1800. If we gets all the crooks, I mean politicans out of office we can build a Utopia again!
I hate to be the one to upset you but Utopia is a myth. This country has been in conflict since 1492. Now the Federal Reserve enslaves us all. Smoke your blunt? and then get back on the treadmill to pay your dues.
just for thought which is more cowardly the person who gives up his or her life to rid the invader from the country or the person who drops the bomb killing anyone below and goes home to base has lunch, and gets ready to do it again?
Where is the Afgani indignation over the intentional loss of innocent civilian lives by the taliban suicide bomber? They are obviously held to a different standard than coalition troops.
The US should leave that cesspool of a country ASAP.
So an ex-freedom fighter on a suicide mission against an occupying forces military convoy is cowardly but a bomb from an untouchable airplane on terrorists that just happens to be at a wedding party is what?
How come these stories are no longer in the headlines? Is the press trying to protect our president from criticism or just hide all our dead kids until next Dec.? Its a shame the guys aren't coming home alive.
Where was security? This place is in a war zone.
Afganistan should have been a three month operation to clear it of Al Qaeda and kill Ben Laudin but no, Bush had to make it into a quagmire. A lot of the problem is polititions, like lady Clinton, who need to exercise their testosterone rather than their frontal lobe. They are risking your sons, not their's. Personally I think it should have been manditory that everybody named Bush, Chenny, Rumsfield, Rove, and the people of Condoleezza Rice should have gone to Afganistan and certainly Iraq with the first wave. Can I get an Amen?