2 U.S. service members die in Afghanistan blast

KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bombing attack on a NATO convoy in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday left two American service members dead, a Pentagon spokesman said, despite repeated refusals by the U.S. military in Afghanistan to say whether there were any deaths in the assault claimed by the Taliban.

Navy Capt. Jeff Davis confirmed the casualties in the attack near Kandahar. The Pentagon’s decision to release the figures seemed to contradict orders issued two months ago by Army Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, barring information about U.S. combat deaths until days after the incident.

There was no information on the number of troops wounded.

U.S. military officials in Afghanistan refused to give any information about casualties, even after the Pentagon released the casualty figures.

Nicholson said the reason for the delay was to allow time for notification of family. Yet it upends Pentagon practice since the Vietnam era, and gives the public less information and transparency into a war that has raged for 16 years, resulting in thousands of deaths and injuries.

The Taliban quickly took responsibility for the attack. A spokesman for the insurgents said the bombing allegedly killed 15 soldiers, but the Taliban routinely exaggerate gains and casualty figures.

In the claim of responsibility, the Taliban also said the attack destroyed two armored tanks. The insurgents’ spokesman for southern Afghanistan, Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, said a “hero” carried out the attack with a small pick-up truck packed with explosives.

Kandahar province was the spiritual heartland and headquarters during the five-year rule of the Taliban, which ended with the U.S. invasion in 2001.

The service members were part of an international force referred to as the Train, Advise and Assist Command south, a reference to their location in the country. Five other countries besides the United States are stationed in the south —— Australia, Germany, Bulgaria, Poland and Romania, said U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan Lt. Damien E. Horvath.

The combined U.S. and NATO troop contingent in Afghanistan is about 13,500. The Trump administration is deciding whether to send about 4,000 or more U.S. soldiers to Afghanistan in an attempt to stem Taliban gains.

The attack in southern Kandahar came as thousands of demonstrators in the Herat transported 31 bodies, the victims of a suicide attack on a Shiite mosque a day earlier, to the residence of the provincial governor. The suicide bomber first sprayed gunfire at the private guards who were protecting the mosque before running inside firing until his rifle jammed, said witnesses. He then detonated explosives strapped to his body.

The Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan took responsibility for that attack, saying it had deployed two suicide bombers.