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5 Die in Year’s Worst Attack on U.S. in Afghanistan American Strike on Afghan Taliban Commander Kills Children, Too
(about 3 hours later)
KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide car bomb in southern Afghanistan killed three American soldiers and two American civilians, including a State Department Foreign Service officer, on Saturday, the deadliest single attack against United States forces this year, officials said. KABUL, Afghanistan — An American military airstrike in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border killed as many as 18 people, including at least one senior Taliban commander but also women and children, raising the thorny issue of civilian casualties for the third time in roughly a week.
In an emotional eulogy to the staff and families of the American Consulate in Istanbul, Secretary of State John Kerry talked on Sunday about the diplomat who was killed, Anne Smedinghoff, 25, from Illinois. The attack occurred Saturday during a joint mission of Afghan and American Special Operations forces targeting a high profile Taliban commander in Kunar Province, Afghan officials said. After several hours of fierce fighting with insurgents in the area, the American forces called in an airstrike to level the home of the commander, Ali Khan, officials said.
In addition to killing Mr. Khan and at least four other Taliban fighters, as many as 10 children were killed in the strike and at least 5 women were wounded, said Abdul Zahir Safi, the governor of Shigal district, where the attack occurred. Afghan officials believed they were the relatives and children of the Taliban commander.
Civilian casualties have long been a sticking point between President Hamid Karzai and his Western allies. Harsh criticism by Mr. Karzai led to stronger rules on airstrike use by American forces last year, effectively halting airstrikes attacks on population centers and homes. Civilian casualties at the hands of foreign forces have dropped dramatically since then, though such strikes bring intense anger among the Afghan population when they happen.
On the Afghan side, Mr. Karzai basically prohibited his own armed forces from requesting supporting NATO airstrikes after an incident in the same district of Kunar, Shigal, in February 2012 killed 10 civilians.
On Sunday, Mr. Karzai’s office issued a statement criticizing the deaths in the Kunar airstrikes, and called for an investigation into civilians deaths there.
The civilian death toll on Saturday added to two incidents in Ghazni Province in the past 8 days, when four police officers were killed during a NATO airstrike and two children died in a helicopter attack. A spokesman for the coalition forces said all of the allegations of civilian casualties remain under investigation. And military officials reiterated that all three recent strikes were called in by international forces rather than Afghan troops.
American military commanders have insisted that airstrikes can be crucial to protecting troops’ lives, especially as Afghan forces increasingly take the lead on security operations this year.
“Government officials might tell you that Afghan and foreign forces only have the right to use airstrike in unpopulated areas, but in practice it is different,” said Gen. Amrullah Aman, a military analyst based in Kabul. “Americans will use their air support whenever they need it, no matter where it is and no matter how many presidential decrees are issued.”
Places like Kunar and nearby Nuristan Province, which have particularly rugged terrain, make airstrikes a weapons of choice because of the difficulty in moving ground troops.
“Neither the Afghan government forces nor the Americans have any presence in the area where the airstrike has happened,” said Haji Sakhi Mohammed, an member of parliament representing Kunar province. “The Insurgents have turned the area into a hotbed of their activities, which have also attracted a lot foreign fighters from the pother side of the border.”
The area, a crucial route for insurgents traveling between Pakistan and Afghanistan and a Taliban stronghold, has been the scene of extensive violence between the Taliban and Afghan and coalition forces. In February, Afghan and NATO forces killed another commander, Shah Pour, in the attack that prompted Mr. Karzai’s initial outcry over air strikes and civilian casualties. Another key commander in the area, Mullah Dadullah, was killed in a joint operation conducted in August 2012.
Fighting has intensified in Afghanistan recently as the weather has warmed up and the so-called fighting season has kicked into gear. On Saturday, a suicide bomber attacked a convoy of Afghan and United States officials in Zabul Province, killing three American soldiers and two civilians, including Anne Smedinghoff, a 25-year-old diplomat in the public affairs division of the State Department. Another employee remains in critical condition.
In an emotional eulogy to the staff and families of the American Consulate in Istanbul, Secretary of State John Kerry talked on Sunday about Ms. Smedinghoff, from Illinois.
Mr. Kerry said Ms. Smedinghoff had previously served in Venezuela. He deplored the “harsh contradiction” of her death, which occurred as the Americans were bringing books to a school.Mr. Kerry said Ms. Smedinghoff had previously served in Venezuela. He deplored the “harsh contradiction” of her death, which occurred as the Americans were bringing books to a school.
“The folks who want to kill people, and that is all they want to do, are scared of knowledge,” Mr. Kerry said. “They want to shut the doors, and they don’t want people to make their choices about their future.”“The folks who want to kill people, and that is all they want to do, are scared of knowledge,” Mr. Kerry said. “They want to shut the doors, and they don’t want people to make their choices about their future.”
The violence came as Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan. That incident, the deadliest for Americans in Afghanistan this year, preceded one of the most worst Taliban attacks since the start of the war, when more than 44 Afghan civilians were killed in a complex assault in Farah Province earlier this week. More than 100 people were wounded in the attack, which involved multiple Taliban gunmen who raided a government compound, kept hostages in the basement and later shot them all.
Attacks are picking up in what is known as the country’s fighting season as the weather gets warmer. And the Taliban are expected to intensify their efforts to destabilize the Afghan security forces as the NATO troops who have secured the country for the last decade start packing up for their departure at the end of 2014.

Sangar Rahimi and Habib Zahori contributed reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan, and Michael R. Gordon from Istanbul.

The suicide bomber detonated his vehicle on a road in Zabul Province at about 11 a.m. as an American convoy passed by, according to American and Afghan officials. The officials and soldiers in the convoy were accompanying Gov. Mohammad Ashraf Nasery of Zabul Province on a trip to inaugurate a new school in Qalat, the provincial capital, where they were to deliver donated books.
Four other State Department employees were wounded in the blast, one critically. Three Afghans were also killed — a doctor accompanying the governor and two of Mr. Nasery’s bodyguards, said Muhammad Jan Rasoolyar, the deputy governor.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast, but it was unclear whether the attack was aimed at the coalition forces or the governor, who survived. The bombing was the deadliest for Americans since July, when a bomb in Wardak Province killed six United States service members, American officials said.
An American civilian was also killed on Saturday in a separate insurgent strike in the east of the country, although officials did not specify the nature of the attack. So far this year, 30 coalition troops have died in Afghanistan, 24 of them Americans, according to Icasualties, a Web site that tracks military fatalities.
The death tolls for coalition forces and Afghans have reversed as Afghans have taken the lead in battle, with Afghans now making up the vast majority of victims of combat-related deaths.
The attacks on Saturday came on the heels of a major Taliban assault in Farah Province last week that killed at least 44 people. In that strike, insurgents stormed a government compound, setting off a seven-hour gun battle that wounded more than 100 people. That attack highlighted the deteriorating security situation in Farah, a restive province that borders Iran to the west and where violent attacks in general have been on the rise.
Officials from Farah said insurgents have targeted the province as the government in Kabul has dealt with more violent areas of the country.
General Dempsey’s trip to Afghanistan on Saturday was intended as an assessment of training that the United States can provide to Afghan troops. During a visit to Afghanistan by the general in August, insurgents hiding outside the heavily fortified Bagram Air Base fired a pair of rockets that damaged his plane and slightly wounded two service members. The general was in his quarters and asleep at the time, his spokesman said.

Azam Ahmed reported from Kabul, and Michael R. Gordon from Istanbul. Steven Lee Myers contributed reporting from Washington, and Taimoor Shah from Kandahar, Afghanistan.