In one of the deadliest attacks against American forces in Afghanistan this year, a Taliban suicide bomber on a motorcycle drove into a military convoy near Bagram Air Base on Monday, killing six American soldiers, a United States official said.
The attack came as Taliban forces have continued grabbing territory across Afghanistan, dragging more American troops directly into the fight despite commanders' continued insistence that the focus of the NATO force remains on training and advising.
Even away from the most intense battlegrounds in southern and eastern Afghanistan, and with the Afghan forces nominally taking the lead in the fighting, American forces have remained at risk, with at least 15 killed this year before the attack on Monday.
The Taliban suicide bomber struck a joint patrol of American and Afghan troops was moving through a village near Bagram Air Base, a sprawling base north of Kabul that is manned largely by American service members and contractors, the United States official said.
