Kabul suicide bomb kills 13 U.S. troops

KABUL, (Reuters) – A suicide car bomber killed 13  American troops in the Afghan capital Kabul today, the  deadliest single ground attack against the NATO-led force in 10  years of war in Afghanistan.
“We can confirm that 13 International Security Assistance  Force members have died,” said a spokesman for the International  Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul, giving no further  details.
A Pentagon spokesman later confirmed all 13 soldiers killed  were American.
Three civilians and a police officer were also killed in the  attack on a convoy of military vehicles, a spokesman for the  Afghan interior ministry said.
Excluding aircraft crashes, it was the deadliest single  incident for foreign troops since the war began in 2001.
Lethal attacks are relatively rare in heavily guarded Kabul,  compared with the south and east of Afghanistan, but Saturday’s  killings came less than two months after insurgents launched a  20-hour assault on the U.S. embassy in the capital.
The assault on the ISAF convoy took place late in the  morning in the Darulaman area in the west of the city, near the  national museum.
The former royal palace, now in ruins, is also in the area,  along with several government departments, and Afghan and  foreign military bases.
The Taliban later claimed responsibility for the attack,  saying they packed a four-wheel-drive vehicle with 700 kg of  explosives.