Four American service members were killed in a mortar attack on Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan on Tuesday, a senior defense official confirmed to NBC News.

The four International Security Assistance Force service members died after an indirect fire attack in eastern Afghanistan, the ISAF said in a statement.

The attack came just hours after the White House announced that the U.S. will soon meet with Taliban representatives for the first time to negotiate a peaceful settlement to end the war in Afghanistan. 

U.S. officials said the negotiating conditions will require the Taliban to cut all ties to al Qaeda, end the violence and accept the Afghan constitution. 

The negotiations will take place in Doha, Qatar, where the Taliban opened an office for the purpose of negotiating directly with the Afghan government. 

The attack also came on the same day international forces handed over control for security of the entire country to Afghan security forces, the milestone the United States and its allies had been working towards during the almost 12-year conflict. 

KABUL, Afghanistan – U.S.-led troops handed complete control of security to Afghanistan authorities Tuesday – an act of faith in country’s fledgling police and army in the face of near-constant insurgent attacks.

The formal transfer of responsibility is major milestone in the process of withdrawal from the country, 12 years after NATO-led mission ISAF began its mission to end Taliban rule.

However, a botched car bomb that killed at least three civilians just before the official handover ceremony raising renewed questions about how the country’s 352,000-strong security forces will tackle the militant threat.

Most foreign combat troops will leave the country by the end of 2014, but international funding and humanitarian aid will continue - prolonging the political headache for President Barack Obama over America's involvement in the conflict.

“Today is a day for all Americans to take pride in the hard work our service members and their civilian counterparts are performing every day in Afghanistan,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a statement that called Tuesday’s handover a “critical milestone.”

Ordinary Afghans may be harder to convince.

“It is a good decision that the Afghan forces are taking the responsibility because it is their own country and they are the one who should be responsible for the security,” said Kabul restaurant owner Mohammad Faried, adding: “I still have doubts. If they do not have good weapons it will be hard for them to keep peace and stability in the country especially in the villages.”

Jawad Jalali / EPA

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, left, shakes hands with NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen prior to Tuesday's ceremony in Kabul.

The U.S. and its allies have yet to decide exactly how long troops will remain in Afghanistan beyond 2014, and what their role should be.

Earlier this month, retired four-star general John Allen called on the U.S. to keep a larger force in Afghanistan than the 8,000-12,000 reportedly being considered by U.S. officials.

Among the problems is a high desertion rate in local police forces, meaning thousands of new recruits are needed each month.

A Congressional research report published in April said the Obama administration was also concerned that “weak and corrupt governance” in Afghanistan would hamper the fight against the Taliban.

In additional The Afghan army has suffered a sharp rise in casualties since it began slowly assuming greater control of security, the BBC reported.  By comparison, international coalition casualties have been steadily falling since 2010, it said.

Afghans are now responsible for security in all districts of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, completing a transfer of power from NATO that began in 2011.

“Is a great day for us, not only for the Afghan government but also for the Afghan nation,” said Janan Mosazai, spokesperson for the country's ministry of foreign affairs. “It is a big day of honor.”

The U.S. military is by far the single biggest group within ISAF’s steadily-shrinking force of about 100,000 foreign troops [PDF link here.]

The security handover means the remaining US-led forces will play only a supporting role, providing help if needed but no longer taking the lead in tackling insurgent attacks.

"We will continue to help Afghan troops in operations if needed,” NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at Tuesday’s ceremony. “But we will no longer plan, execute or lead those operations. And by the end of 2014, our combat mission will be completed. At that time, Afghanistan will be fully secured by Afghans.”

As combat troops are scaled down, the U.S. focus will shift to Special Operations forces who will advise the Afghan military on hunting down top insurgent or terrorist leaders.

On any day in Afghanistan, about 60 Special Operations teams are working with Afghan local police forces to provide security in villages, according to a New York Times report.

The target of Tuesday's suicide car bomb attack was prominent lawmaker and Shia Muslim cleric Mohammed Mohaqiq, police at the scene told The Associated Press.

Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

Launch slideshow

Gen. Mohammad Zahir, chief of the Kabul Criminal Investigation Division, told the AP three people were killed by the bombing and another 30 were wounded — including six bodyguards. Mohaqiq survived the attack, Reuters reported.

In March, Karzai publicly criticized the American presence in his country, causing embarrassment to U.S. defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, during his first visit to Kabul in the new role.

NBC News’ Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.

Related:

• Taliban accused of beheading two young boys
• Full Afghanistan coverage from NBC News

This story was originally published on Tue Jun 18, 2013 11:06 AM EDT

U.S. and Taliban representatives will meet soon for the first time to begin what are expected to be long and complex negotiations for a peaceful settlement to the war in Afghanistan, senior Obama administration officials said Tuesday.

The officials told NBC News that the meeting will take place in the next several days in the Qatari capital of Doha. The Taliban will open an office there for the purpose of negotiating directly with the Afghan government, the officials said. A precise date was not announced.

"This is a key milestone on the way to the complete transition of responsibility for security to Afghans by the end of next year," a senior U.S. administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said via conference call after the announcement was made.

However, a senior Taliban official said "formal talks" would not begin immediately and any negotiations would be conditional on the release of Taliban commanders from Guantanamo Bay.

The talks, which follow numerous failed attempts to start peace negotiations, would represent the first time the U.S. and Taliban militants have met to discuss ending the war since the Afghanistan conflict started in 2001.

The negotiating conditions require the Taliban to break their ties with al Qaeda, end the violence and accept the Afghan constitution, especially the protections for women and minorities, the officials said.

But because of deep distrust between the Afghan government and the Taliban, the process will be “complex, long and messy,” one official said. The officials emphasized that expectations were low, but said the opening of Doha office was a crucial step for Afghanistan.

"We have long said that this conflict will likely not be won on the battlefield, and that is why we support the opening of this office," said one senior administration official.

As for the American government's role in the talks, the United States "will have a role in direct talks, but this is a negotiation that will have to be led by Afghans," another said.

According to a State Department spokesperson, special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan Ambassador James Dobbins will meet on the U.S.'s behalf with the Taliban in the coming days. He departs Tuesday for Ankara, Turkey, and will then travel to Doha before going to Afghanistan and Pakistan. 

His trip will primarily be focused on reconciliation, said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

"Our goal in Afghanistan continues to be to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaida, to ensure that the country can never again be a safe haven for terrorists. We're doing both at the same time, talking and winding down our fighting in the country," Psaki said.

Secretary of State John Kerry praised the decision to hold talks.

"We're very pleased with what has taken place," he said.

The disclosure came on the same day that international forces, led by the United States, handed over control for security of the entire country to Afghan security forces — a milestone after almost 12 years of war. Most foreign combat troops will leave the country by the end of 2014.

Obama administration officials also told NBC News that the U.S. is pursuing a prisoner exchange with the Taliban to secure the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, held for several years by the Haqqani network, considered a dangerous element of the Taliban.

The talks follow discussions held between Obama and Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai during a January visit to Washington, D.C., the officials said.

"This is a new development, a potentially significant development," said one official. "But peace is not at hand."

A senior Taliban official said they were “already in contact with the U.S., but to call it talks is premature.”

“For talks to begin, first the U.S. will have to release five Afghan Taliban commanders [held in Guantanamo Bay] and bring them to Qatar,” he said. “Then we can sit and start negotiations on how to set the agenda for formal talks."

“As of now, we are not going in to formal talks with the U.S. immediately,” he added.

The Taliban official said releasing the detained commanders would be a “first step” in restoring trust.

“Amir ul Momineen Mullah Omar [the Taliban’s leader] is not desperate for talks with the U.S. as the Afghan Taliban are victorious in the battlefield,” he said, adding that there would have to be “equal gains” from any talks that did take place.

Pakistan said it had played a “constructive and positive role” in arranging what it described as “important milestone in support of a peace process.”

"Pakistan welcomes the announcement of the opening of a Taliban office in Doha for the purpose of bringing peace to Afghanistan and the region,” a Pakistan foreign office spokesman said in a statement. “Pakistan also welcomes the start of direct peace talks between the U.S. and the Taliban. Pakistan has long called for a peaceful and negotiated solution to the Afghan conflict.”

NBC News' Elizabeth Chuck and Ian Johnston contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Tue Jun 18, 2013 9:51 AM EDT

Daud Yardost / AFP - Getty Images

One of at least 38 people injured in a suicide blast is Kabul is helped from the scene. At least 14 are dead.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A suicide attack on buses carrying workers from Afghanistan’s Supreme Court killed at least 14 civilians and injured 38 others Tuesday, police said.

A bomber blew himself up in his car near the buses as they took the employees home, according to Gen. Mohammad Zahir, the head of the police investigation department in the capital, Kabul.

Local television pictures showed injured locals being loaded into pickup trucks.

In a statement, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

"We were sitting in a car when suddenly there was an explosion in the car behind me," Kabul resident Mira Jan, bleeding from a wound in the head, told Reuters.

"After that I don't know what happened." 

On Monday, seven Taliban insurgents including suicide bombers attacked the country's international airport in Kabul. 

Also on Monday, six insurgents with suicide vests and heavy guns attacked a government compound in the provincial center of Zabul, wounding at least 18 people. 

Concerns are mounting over how the 352,000-strong Afghan security forces will cope with an intensifying Taliban insurgency once most foreign troops leave by the end of next year. 

Reuters and NBC News' Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.

Related:

• Taliban accused of beheading two young boys
• Full coverage of Afghanistan on nbcnews.com

Two Afghan boys trading yogurt for bread with local police were beheaded by Taliban fighters, an official said.

The boys, aged 10 and 16, had traveled to Afghan army and police checkpoints near their home in the southern province of Kandahar, scrounging for leftover food to bring to their families, the officials said. 

According to Javid Faisal, the spokesperson for Kandahar governor, the boys were swapping a milky drink called lassi for dry bread to feed their flock of sheep and goats.

Taliban allegedly warned them to not to trade with or help the police.

"The boys were on their way back ... when they were stopped by Taliban insurgents who beheaded them," the chief of Zhari district, Jamal Agha, told Reuters. "Both of them were innocent children and had nothing to do with government or foreigners." 

The militants have beheaded dozens of people in the last two years, accusing them of aiding the government and its foreign backers led by the United States. 

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, said the group was not involved in the boys' killings. 

Faisal said the incident occurred on Sunday. Several hours later the bodies and severed heads of the boys were left in their village, he said. 

Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban and one of Afghanistan's most restive provinces. 

In July last year in the same district, a 16-year-old boy accused by the Taliban of spying for the government was beheaded and skinned. The next month, a girl aged six and a boy of 12 were kidnapped and beheaded in separate incidents in Kandahar and the east of the country. 

Such incidents highlight the difficulty that Taliban leaders have in enforcing discipline across an estimated 20,000 fighters spread from Afghanistan to Pakistan. 

The leadership is trying to improve the group's image in case it wants to push forward tentative reconciliation steps and perhaps even enter mainstream politics. But some militant units have proved hard to control, roaming the countryside and killing or maiming those they deem immoral. 

The beheading occurred the day before seven Taliban insurgents including suicide bombers attacked country's international airport in the capital, Kabul. 

Also on Monday, six insurgents with suicide vests and heavy guns attacked a government compound in the provincial center of Zabul, wounding at least 18 people. 

Concerns are mounting over how the 352,000-strong Afghan security forces will cope with an intensifying Taliban insurgency once most foreign troops leave by the end of next year. 

Reuters contributed to this report.

Insurgents attacked Kabul International Airport early Monday and battled Afghan security forces for four hours, officials said.

The assault occurred on the military side of the airport and included large explosions and machine-gun fire.

The attackers took up positions inside a partially constructed building next to airport, interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said, and fought Afghan security forces for about four hours before the raid ended.

Speaking to The Associated Press, Sediqi said that two civilians were wounded in Monday's attack that was apparently targeting NATO's airport headquarters.

Kabul police said that they estimated as many as 10 suicide attackers were involved. Several of the fighters were reportedly captured.

A Taliban spokesman told NBC News it was behind the raid and that the main targets were Americans.

Afghan National Army forces were resisting the attack, which began before 5 a.m. local time, or 8:30 p.m. Sunday ET.

Capt. Luca Carniel of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force told NBC News that the force was aware of the attack at the airport and that the military was assessing the situation.

The airport is used by both civilians and the military. On the military side, the NATO command headquarters runs day-to-day operations in the Afghan war. Most foreign combat troops are to be out of the country by the end of 2014, leaving Afghan forces to cope with insurgents.

Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

Launch slideshow

Airport sources told NBC News that all takeoffs and landings there had been suspended.

People living nearby told The Associated Press that they heard what sounded like a dozen explosions coming from the airport. They said that the explosions sounded like rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons fire.

Embassies in the diplomatic zone in Kabul were locked down, and emergency alarms rang at the British Embassy, Reuters reported.

Reuters, The Associated Press and NBC News' Sohel Uddin and Akbar Shinwari contributed to this report

This story was originally published on Sun Jun 9, 2013 8:54 PM EDT

Three Americans were killed in Afghanistan on Saturday when a man in an Afghan National Army uniform opened fire, the military said in a statement.

The attack happened in the eastern province of Paktika amid ongoing concerns about so-called “insider attacks” in which people who are apparently allies of U.S. and other foreign forces in the country suddenly open fire.

In a statement, the International Security Assistance Force said two U.S. service members and a U.S. civilian were killed “when an individual wearing an ANA uniform turned his weapon against” them.

“ISAF and Afghan officials are continuing to assess the incident and more information will be released as appropriate,” the statement said.

Insider attacks accounted for one in every five combat deaths suffered by NATO-led forces in Afghanistan and 16 percent of all American combat casualties according to 2012 data, Reuters reported.

Last year, a surge in such attacks prompted NATO to temporarily curtail some joint operations with Afghan government forces.

Also on Saturday, an Italian soldier was killed and three were wounded when a child threw a grenade at a NATO convoy in the western province of Farah, a spokesman for the governor and a Taliban spokesman said.

"A brave, heroic 11-year-old Afghan child hurled a hand grenade at dismounted Italian troops in Farah city," the Taliban said in an English-language statement.

The four deaths on Saturday bring to 16 the number of international troops killed in Afghanistan this month, and come two days after seven Georgian soldiers were killed in a suicide car-bomb attack in the southern province of Helmand. 

Reuters contributed to this report.

Related:

• 7 Georgian soldiers killed in Afghanistan suicide bomb attack
• Report: Six kids, two US soldiers among dead in Afghan suicide blast
• Read more Afghanistan stories on nbcnews.com

Zurab Kurtsikidze / EPA

The national flag flies at half-staff in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Friday. President Mikheil Saakashvili declared a day of mourning after seven Georgian troops were killed in Afghanistan.

KABUL -- A suicide bomber detonated a small truck loaded with explosives in southern Afghanistan, killing seven Georgian soldiers, NATO and Georgian officials said on Friday, and the Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility.

The attack happened on Thursday evening in Nawzad district in the battlefield province of Helmand, officials said. On May 13, three soldiers from the ex-Soviet state were killed in a similar attack in the same province.

The explosives were detonated outside a Georgian military base in Nawzad, said chief of the Georgian army joint staff, General Irakli Dzneladze.

"I offer my deepest condolences to the families of our fallen heroes and to all of Georgia," Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said in a televised address. "Our duty to their memory is to continue our path towards NATO membership."

Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

Anja Niedringhaus / AP

More than 10 years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

Launch slideshow

Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attack in a text message sent to reporters, saying a "truck bombing inside a U.S.-NATO base has killed 20 foreign invaders and wounded dozens."

The Afghan Taliban, seeking to expel foreign forces and impose Islamist rule after they were ousted in 2001, routinely overstate casualties in their attacks.

The blast brings to 30 the death toll of Georgian soldiers serving in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.

With over 1,500 soldiers serving in Helmand province, Georgia has the largest non-NATO combat troop commitment in Afghanistan.

Georgian troops have been in Afghanistan since 2004, a commitment that underscores Tbilisi's ambition to join NATO, despite fierce opposition from neighboring Russia, with which it fought a brief war in 2008.

Last month proved particularly bloody for members of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which is preparing to withdraw most combat troops by the end of next year.

Related:

• Report: Six kids, two US soldiers among dead in Afghan suicide blast
• Read more Afghanistan stories on nbcnews.com

Aamir Qureshi / AFP - Getty Images

New Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif faces daunting challenges at home and abroad.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan's newly elected prime minister on Wednesday called on the United States to stop carrying out drone strikes on his country's soil.

"We respect the sovereignty of others, but others don't respect our sovereignty. These daily drone attacks must stop," Nawaz Sharif said in his maiden address to the 342-member National Assembly.

Sharif was sworn in Wednesday by President Asif Ali Zardari after his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party won a majority of seats in the assembly and its parliamentarians voted him into power as their leader.

"Building good relations with the U.S. based on mutual respect and interest" will be a top priority for Sharif, one of his senior aides said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not yet authorized to publicly address policies.

When asked how Sharif would try to persuade the U.S. to stop launching drone strikes, the aide said, "We will try to convince the U.S. that drones are doing no good to promote dialogue."

Slideshow: Pakistan: A nation in turmoil

Muhammed Muheisen / AP

Images of daily life, political pursuits, religious rites and deadly violence.

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Whatever his ambitions, Sharif is likely to be forced to "take a cautious line" on drone strikes, said Raza Rumi, director at the Jinnah Institute, a progressive Islamabad-based think tank.

"He is appeasing the popular outrage against drones and also keeping the imperatives of Pakistan's vital engagement with the U.S., and its commitment," Rumi said. "But as PM it would be difficult for Sharif to balance the two conflicting realities, and it would test his diplomatic and political skills."

Obama recently outlined changes to the drone program that would limit the cases in which strikes could be used.

But Sharif faces other daunting tasks. In addition to appeasing his countrymen without alienating a superpower, the new prime minister's "major challenge is the peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan," the senior aide said.

Additionally, he must manage relations with Pakistan's nuclear-armed neighbor and historical foe, India.

At home he faces a growing wave of militancy and extremism, an energy crisis and a perilous economy, as well as the need to maintain control of the nation's powerful military, with which he has a contentious history.

Sharif, embarking on an unprecedented third term as prime minister, was first elected in 1990 but was forced to resign in 1993 by the chief of the army over differences with the president. He was elected again in 1997, but his government was overthrown by Gen. Pervez Musharraf in October 1999.

Even if he manages those tasks, he will face powerful opposition within the General Assembly, though one fierce opponent said his party would be more inclined to back Sharif if he makes headway in stopping U.S. drone strikes.

"We will not be a friendly opposition," said Javed Hashmi of Imran Khan's Movement for Justice (PTI) party. "We will criticize and check this government if it works against the interests of Pakistan. But, one area where Mr. Nawaz Sharif can expect our support is in stopping the drone menace. If he makes a serious plan to restore our sovereignty and stop the drone attacks, then he will have our support."

Related:

• Pakistan struggles with power crisis
• Obama reframes counterterrorism policy with new rules on drones
• Taliban rejects peace talks after leader killed in drone strike

GARDEZ, Afghanistan - A suicide bomber targeting a U.S. military convoy detonated a motorbike packed with explosives outside a boys' high school in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, killing at least six students, two U.S. soldiers and a policeman, officials said.

About 20 people were wounded in the attack near the office of the governor of Paktia province. Most were schoolchildren, but they also included five U.S. soldiers, local officials said.

The bomber struck at about 11.30 a.m. next to Samkani Boys High School as the convoy of U.S. soldiers and members of the Afghan Local Police (ALP) was nearby.

"There were American soldiers and ALP close to the high school when the bomber detonated his explosives," Paktia police chief General Zalmai Oriakhil told Reuters.

He said at least 10 students had died, along with one ALP officer. About 20 people were wounded, he said.

A statement by the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said two ISAF service members and six Afghan civilians had been killed. As per usual practice, it did not identify the nationality of the ISAF soldiers.

A Reuters witness who visited the hospital where the casualties were taken said most of the injured were schoolchildren aged under 12.

Concerns are mounting over how the 352,000-strong Afghan security forces will cope with an intensifying insurgency once most foreign troops leave by the end of next year.

The U.S.-led force says the insurgency is responsible for about 86 per cent of all civilian casualties - or about 1,500 people - across the country this year.

Also on Monday, a roadside bomb struck a truck and killed seven Afghans, including five women in Mehtarlam, the capital of eastern Laghman province, the interior ministry said.

At the weekend, four Americans - three soldiers and an ISAF contractor - were killed in three incidents in the east and south of the country. 

Read more Afghanistan stories on nbcnews.com

Rahmat Gul / AP

An Afghan policeman walks away from the burning Red Cross building Wednesday in Jalalabad.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The Afghan Taliban on Friday denied attacking the International Committee of the Red Cross in Jalalabad this week, saying the group did not target those who were "truly serving" the public.

Four insurgents, two wearing suicide-bomb vests, attacked the strictly neutral aid group's office in the eastern city on Wednesday, killing a guard and wounding a staff member.

Senior officials from NATO's International Security Assistance Force told Reuters they believed the Taliban launched the attack.

"The Islamic Emirate has never targeted civilians and those who, with the exception of espionage, are truly serving the people. We have never attacked them," Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said in a statement on Friday.

The ICRC said on Friday that it had suspended activities in Jalalabad because of the attack, during which Afghan police killed the attackers and rescued seven foreign staff members from the building, one of whom was slightly wounded.

The attack was the first of its kind on the ICRC in Afghanistan since it started operations in the country in 1987, and it sent shockwaves through the international aid community in the country.

It came less than a week after another humanitarian group, the International Organization for Migration, was attacked by insurgents in Kabul, killing at least three civilians and wounding four foreign aid workers.

Concerns are mounting over how the 352,000-strong Afghan security forces will cope with an intensifying insurgency once most foreign troops leave by the end of next year.

The ICRC's $90 million-a-year operations in Afghanistan are the group's biggest in the world. Some 1,800 ICRC staffers work on projects ranging from providing orthopedic limbs to the war wounded to visiting militants in Afghan jails.

Virtually all ICRC activities in neighboring Pakistan, where a hospital in Peshawar regularly tended to wounded insurgents, were frozen last year after a British staff doctor was beheaded in Quetta in an attack blamed on the Taliban.

An ICRC water engineer, Ricardo Munguia, was shot dead in Afghanistan in 2003.

Philippe Stoll, ICRC spokesman in Geneva, said on Friday the Jalalabad office would remain closed until "we have a thorough analysis and understanding of what has happened and who was behind it. We want to speak with everyone and we want to have (security) guarantees."

Its aid workers throughout the country have been told not to travel in Afghanistan, but their work is continuing while it reviews security.

Related:

• Gunmen, suicide bomber attack Red Cross building
• Taliban rejects peace talks after deputy chief killed
• US drone strike kills Taliban No. 2 in Pakistan

Chris Hondros / Getty Images file

A U.S. Marine MRE (Meals Ready to Eat) ration package is seen in a transport vehicle in March 2010 near Khan Neshin, southern Helmand province, Afghanistan.

Marines at Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan will lose a key daily meal starting Saturday, causing some to forgo a hot breakfast and others to work six-plus hours without refueling on cooked food, according to Marines at the base and Marine Corps officials.

The midnight ration service — known there as “midrats" — supplies breakfast to Marines on midnight-to-noon shifts and dinner to Marines who are ending noon-to-midnight work periods. It's described as one of the few times the Marines at Leatherneck can be together in one place.

The base, which is located in Afghanistan’s southwestern Helmand Province, flanked by Iran and Pakistan, also will remove its 24-hour sandwich bar. It plans to replace the dishes long offered at midnight with pre-packaged MREs, said Marine Corps Lt. Col. Cliff Gilmore, who has been deployed in Afghanistan since February. 

The moves, though unpopular with many Marines on the ground and their families back home, are emblematic of the massive drawdown of American troops in Afghanistan and the dismantling of U.S. military facilities. More than 30,000 U.S. service members will leave Afghanistan in coming months as the U.S. prepares to hand responsibility for security to Afghan forces in 2014.

While no Marine at Camp Leatherneck agreed to speak on the record, many are privately angry about the hit on base morale.

"This boils my skin. One of my entire shifts will go 6.5 hours without a meal. If we need to cut back on money I could come up with 100 other places,” one Leatherneck-based Marine wrote in an email this week to his wife and shared with NBC News. (The Marine declined to speak on the record.) “Instead, we will target the biggest contributor to morale. I must be losing my mind. What is our senior leadership thinking? I just got back from flying my ass off and in a few days, I will not have a meal to replenish me after being away for over 9 hours.”

Brennan Linsley / AP file

U.S. Marines enter the chow hall for dinner, left, after taking turns clearing ammo from the chambers of their weapons into a barrel, right, at Camp Leatherneck, in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, in September 2009.

Until Saturday, Leatherneck’s dining facility will offer its customary four meals per day. After June 1, the menu drops to three daily meals and, eventually, there will be only two hot meals served, Gilmore revealed in an email to the impacted Marines, adding: “Any time a dining hall meal is eliminated it will be replaced from a plentiful stock of MREs (Meals Ready to Eat — or any one of several creative acronyms our Marines have come up with.)”

“The fact is our force in Afghanistan is shrinking fast and all the creature comforts and services deployed military-members have grown accustomed to over the past decade are going to be reduced," Gilmore wrote in an email to NBC News. “When serving we are challenged to endure different things — to face different challenges — over time. But we're an odd bunch, we Marines — probably no surprise that we'll complain more about losing the sandwich bar on the way out than we did about getting shot at on the way in.”

The tactical reason for the cooking scale-down is that the people who are assigned to “support services” — such as food workers — “need to go home before the people who provide the security which enables those services,” Gilmore wrote. “This is a natural outcome of the drawdown process unrelated to sequestration or the ongoing budget issues back in the States.”

Back home, spouses and friends of the troops in Afghanistan are criticizing the loss of hot meals as a poor logistical choice that will impact the service members' overall nutrition, energy and spirits. 

“MREs are an alternative for when you can’t get to healthy food. They're supposed to be for desperation,” said Babette Maxwell, founder and executive director of Military Spouse Magazine, the wife of a Navy pilot and an advocate for service members and their families. “These guys have six to nine months left on their deployment. These are highly athletic and highly physical people, toting guns, not working any less now than before — and not working out any less either. Now, they’re short a meal and they don’t have any healthy alternatives.”

According to the Marine Corps, a typical MRE may contain chili with beans, cornbread, cheese spread, crackers, a toaster pastry, a “dairyshake,” red pepper, a spoon, a flameless heater and a “hot beverage bag.”

To fill the hot food gap in Afghanistan, a group of U.S.-based military advocates and military-family members recently launched a Facebook page — called “Breakfast for Bagram" — to spur food donations that will be mailed to troops all around Afghanistan. The page states: “We are here to help collect and send non-perishable breakfast type foods to the deployed troops on the 17 bases in Afghanistan that are not currently serving breakfast 'hot chow' and Midnight chow due to the budget cuts.”

Gilmore described cooked-meal reduction as part of a larger effort to “become increasingly austere” as the force shrinks, but he said the base members will not face an unhealthy calorie shortage.

“The Marines here at Leatherneck may have to endure the monotony of a limited menu and sometimes an MRE — but they will not suffer from malnutrition unless they choose not to eat,” Gilmore said. 

At home, some military family members nonetheless called the change a mistake. 

“Psychologically, midrats is probably the most important of all the meals because that’s the big social time — where first (shift) crew is coming off and second (shift) crew is coming on,” Maxwell said."That's where you get the esprit de corps, the camaraderie. It's not just the food you're taking away, it's their social sustenance.”