Four U.S. soldiers were injured in a Taliban suicide blast in the heart of the Afghan capital of Kabul Friday, marking the second attack against local and coalition forces in the city in as many days.
An armored convoy of coalition forces was moving through the eastern part of the city when it was hit with a bomb-laden vehicle, coalition spokesman Col. David Butler told The Washington Post. Four Afghan civilians were injured in the blast, as well as the American troops, who have not been officially identified.
The strike comes as the U.S. presses ahead with bilateral peace talks with senior Taliban members in an attempt to end the longest war in U.S. history.
The Taliban claimed credit for the attack on social media, claiming it had killed 10 American service members in the strike. Command officials at U.S and NATO headquarters in Kabul denied the casualties, saying the four American troops hit in the attack suffered only minor injuries.
Friday’s strike came a day after a suicide bomber struck the Marshal Fahim National Defense University in Kabul, killing and wounding a number of Afghan military cadets leaving the facility for the weekend. Members of the Islamic State’s faction in the country claimed credit for the attack.
• Carlo Muñoz can be reached at cmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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