13 Americans Among Those Killed in Kabul Suicide Attack

KABUL, Afghanistan — At least 13 American soldiers and four Afghans were killed when a Taliban suicide car bomber attacked an armored shuttle bus in Kabul on Saturday, a Western military official said. - It was the single most deadly attack for American or other NATO troops in the capital since the war began, military officials said, and follows brazen Taliban assaults on the American Embassy and NATO headquarters in the capital last month. Such high-profile attacks have been seen as a shift in Taliban strategy as they struggle against a surge in American troops that has loosened the militants’ grip on the Taliban heartland in the South and compromised the ability to stage more conventional attacks on NATO forces. American officials see the latest assaults as the Taliban’s attempt to shake confidence in the Afghan government, which is taking over security from NATO in Kabul and other areas of the country. The deaths on Saturday represented the largest loss of American lives in Afghanistan since 30 Americans died in an Aug. 6 attack on a helicopter.

PressTV: In Afghan war, 16 US-led soldiers killed