KABUL — The Taliban took responsibility Monday for a bomb blast in Afghanistan that killed six American service members, while other militants launched suicide attacks on two police headquarters that left 20 people dead, according to officials.
German Brig. Gen. Gunter Katz, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, said the six Americans were killed Sunday when their armored vehicle struck a bomb planted in eastern Afghanistan. He said a seventh American soldier was killed in a separate insurgent attack in the south.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack in Wardak province, just south of Kabul, in a statement.
Coalition and Afghan forces are trying to secure areas of Wardak that insurgents use as gateway into the Afghan capital where they stage high-profile attacks on Afghan government and NATO targets.
Wardak provincial police chief Gen. Abdul Qayum Baqizoi said that after the explosion in Jalrez district, a coalition airstrike killed a local Taliban commander and wounded three insurgents.
In the south, three suicide bombers riding in a three-wheeled vehicle blew themselves up Monday afternoon in Kandahar city, said Kandahar provincial spokesman Ahmad Jawed Faisal.
A short time later, more suicide bombers tried to attack the police headquarters in Kandahar, but they were gunned down by police, Faisal said. Militants also attacked a police headquarters building in Shibirghan, the capital of Jawzjan province in the relatively peaceful north.
