Roadside bomb kills 3 U.S. troops near Afghan city of Ghazni

KABUL, Afghanistan — Three U.S. service members were killed Tuesday when a roadside bomb detonated next to their vehicle in the embattled province of Ghazni, U.S. military officials said.

Three other U.S. service members were wounded along with a U.S. military contractor, they added. The survivors were evacuated and are receiving medical attention. Their names were not immediately released.

U.S. military officials said Tuesday’s fatal incident took place during a military patrol near Ghazni city, which has remained tense and unstable since it was overrun by Taliban forces in August in a four-day siege that left more than 100 people dead and parts of the city in ruins.

A spokesman for the Ghazni governor’s office, Aref Noori, said a joint military operation by Afghan and NATO troops had been underway in a village southeast of Ghazni city Tuesday morning when the bomb struck an armored military vehicle carrying foreign forces.

In the past several weeks, the insurgents have also launched a series of assaults on villages in rural districts of the province that are populated by minority ethnic Hazara Shiites. The attacks sent thousands of residents fleeing to other nearby provinces.

The deaths marked the fourth U.S. military fatality in Afghanistan in the past week, and the fifth this month. Last Saturday, a U.S. Army Ranger, Sgt. Leandro Jasso, was fatally wounded during a combat operation in Nimruz province. Officials said he was apparently killed by allied Afghan forces in a friendly fire incident.

Earlier in the month, U.S. Army Maj. Brent R. Taylor was shot dead in an insider attack in Kabul. Taylor was the mayor of Ogden, Utah.

According to the U.S. military, there are about 14,000 U.S. service members currently in Afghanistan as part of Resolute Support, the U.S.-led NATO mission to train, advise and assist Afghan forces in fighting Taliban insurgents.

A separate counterterror mission involving U.S. special operations forces is working with Afghan forces to fight the Islamic State militia.