Three US soldiers killed, Later 30 civilians were killed in Afghanistan: NATO

Three US soldiers were killed and three wounded by a bomb in Afghanistan Tuesday, NATO said, taking the number of American service personnel to die in the war-torn country this year to 12.

NATO’s Resolute Support mission would not immediately release any details about the soldiers, but said they had been killed when an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated near Ghazni city in central Afghanistan.
An American contractor was also wounded, it said, adding that the four injured in the blast were receiving medical care.
The casualties come just days after another US soldier was killed in Afghanistan’s Nimroz province on Saturday.

An initial review showed the soldier was “likely accidentally shot by our Afghan partner force”, a NATO statement said Tuesday, adding that the “tragic” incident occurred as they engaged in a battle with al Qaeda militants.

“There are no indications he was shot intentionally,” the statement added, naming the soldier as Sgt Jasso without giving the first name.
General Scott Miller, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, said Jasso was killed “defending our nation, fighting al Qaeda alongside our Afghan partners”

Jasso’s death follows a spate of so-called “insider attacks” that have rattled foreign troops tasked with training and assisting Afghanistan’s military.

More than 2,200 American soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since the 2001 US-led invasion that toppled the Taliban regime from power.

The number of American casualties has fallen dramatically since the end of 2014 when Afghan forces took over from US-led NATO combat troops to secure the country.

Since the start of 2015, 58 Americans have been killed, President Ashraf Ghani said earlier this month.

In the same time period, nearly 30,000 Afghan police and soldiers have died, Ghani said — a figure much higher than any previously acknowledged.

The Taliban have intensified attacks on Afghan forces, inflicting record casualties even as the United States ratchets up efforts to engage the militants in peace talks.

More than 17 years since the start of the conflict, the US is trying to find a way out of the war.

US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is spearheading efforts to strike a peace deal with the Taliban before Afghanistan’s April presidential election.
A Taliban delegation met with Khalilzad in Doha in October and November to discuss ending the Afghan conflict.
30 Civilians were killed by

At least 30 Afghan civilians were killed in U.S. air strikes in the Afghan province of Helmand, officials and residents of the area said on Wednesday, the latest casualties from a surge in air operations aimed at driving the Taliban into talks.

Afghanistan’s NATO-led force said Afghan government forces and U.S. advisers came under fire from Taliban fighters in a compound in Garmsir district and called in an air strike, but the ground forces were not aware of any civilians in or near the compound.

Helmand provincial governor Mohammad Yasin Khan said troops had called in air strikes against Taliban fighters in Garmsir, causing both civilian and Taliban casualties.

A resident of the area called Mohammadullah said the clash began late on Tuesday.

“Foreign forces bombed the area and the bombs hit my brother’s house,” he said.

He said women and 16 children were among the dead.

Another resident, Feda Mohammad, said some victims were still buried in the rubble of the compound.

“The area is under the control of Taliban but all of the victims of last night’s bombing are civilians,” he said.

The NATO-led Resolute Support forces said Afghan forces and U.S. advisers came under fire from Taliban equipped with machines guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

“At the time of the strike, the ground force was unaware of any civilians in or around the compound; they only knew that the Taliban was using the building as a fighting position,” a force spokeswoman said in a statement.

“We investigate every credible allegation of error and review every mission to learn, adapt and improve,” she said.

The deaths are the latest in a growing civilian casualty toll caused by air strikes and underline the severity of the Afghan war even as moves to begin peace talks have picked up with contacts between U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban representatives.

The United Nations said last month the number of civilian casualties from air strikes in the first nine months of the year was already higher than in any entire year since at least 2009.