US: 2 troops are killed in combat in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — Two U.S. service members have been killed in combat in Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday.

The NATO Resolute Support mission announced their deaths first, providing no details about what happened and saying that their names would be withheld for 24 hours until their families could be notified.

Later, a U.S. official said the two service members died in combat from small-arms fire without providing further information.

More than 2,400 U.S. military personnel have died in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 to topple the Taliban, whose government had harbored al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

The U.S. formally ended its Afghan combat mission in 2014 but still provides extensive air and other support to local forces. In Afghanistan: The death toll in a suicide bombing at a Kabul wedding claimed by the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan has risen to 80, an official said Wednesday, as a U.S. envoy was set to resume talks with the Taliban on ending America’s longest war.

The initial toll in Saturday’s blast was 63, but 17 people later died of their wounds, Interior Ministry spokesman Nusrat Rahimi said. Thirty people were in critical condition after the attack.

The suicide bombing renewed concerns that the growing threat by the affiliate of the Islamic State group will mean little peace for Afghan civilians despite the U.S.Taliban negotiations to end nearly 18 years of fighting.