Two U.S. soldiers and at least 21 Afghans were killed in separate attacks in Afghanistan on Friday and Thursday as the Taliban ramp up fatal assaults throughout the country.
The attacks started on Friday when a bomb explosion hit a convoy of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force troops. Two American soldiers were killed in the blast, according to CNN.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, with spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid tweeting that a U.S. convoy was targeted in the Bagram district in an attack that claimed the lives of five Americans.
[quote text_size=”small” author=”– Zabiullah Mujahid” author_title=”Taliban spokesman”]
Efforts have been made to identify media outlets who are motivating people toward vulgarity to make them pay and face its consequences. The Taliban will continue its attacks targeting foreign invaders and their Afghan slaves.
[/quote]
The next day, 12 Afghan civilians were killed as they cleared mines in southern Helmand province. The civilians were defusing devices planted by the Taliban to target military vehicles and tanks. Afghan security forces who arrived at the scene killed three militants and arrested four. The Taliban also claimed responsibility for this attack and said it killed soldiers, not real mine clearers.
Also on Saturday, Taliban gunman and a suicide bomber unleashed attacks that killed six Afghan soldiers on a Kabul bus and assassinated a Supreme Court official, according to the New York Times. The violence on Saturday began with the assassination of secretariat of the Supreme Court, Atiqullah Rawoofi, who was on his way home from work.
The attacks over the weekend have underscored what has been a violent season in Afghanistan, which have heightened fear and uncertainty in the capital.
The surge in violence over the last few weeks has caused many international NGOs and embassies to limit travel to a minimum. In the last month, the Taliban has claimed responsibility for killing a South African aid worker and his two children, a bombing of a British embassy vehicle and a teenage suicide bomber who attacked a French cultural center theater performance, according to the Guardian.
