A bomb killed four US troops when it hit their armored vehicle in a volatile mountainous region, while five Afghan members of a US-backed militia were killed in a firefight, officials said.
The bombing was the deadliest loss for the US military in four months and served as a chilling reminder of the dangers thousands of British, Canadian and Dutch troops will face when they take over from US forces in southern Afghanistan by midyear.
The four US troops were patrolling with Afghan soldiers along a valley road in Uruzgan Province's Dihrawud district, a hotbed of the insurgency, when they were attacked, said Lieutenant Mike Cody, a US military spokesman.
Shortly after the blast, militants fired with guns and rocket-propelled grenades. The troops fought back and called in attack helicopters and fighter planes to pound the militants' positions, a military statement said. An assessment of insurgent casualties is ongoing, it said.
"This is a sad and tragic day for us all," Brigadier General John Sterling, a US commander, was quoted as saying in the statement.
The names of the victims was withheld, pending notification of next of kin.
The bombing raised the death toll of US personnel in and around Afghanistan to 214 since the US invaded the country in late 2001.
The blast was the biggest loss of life since late September when five troops were killed in a helicopter crash.
Violence spiked across southern and eastern Afghanistan last year as militants stepped up their campaign against the country's US-backed government.
Some 1,600 people were killed, including 91 US troops, more than double the number in 2004.
The past four months has seen an unprecedented spate of more than 20 suicide bombings, raising fears of Iraq-style bloodshed.
US military commanders and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, however, say the spike in suicide attacks and roadside bombings suggests the insurgents are no longer able to carry out major assaults.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of