13 US, three Australian troops killed in Afghanistan

US officials said 13 American troops operating under Nato were killed in a car bomb attack on a foreign military convoy in the Afghan capital Kabul on Saturday. At least one other soldier was wounded in the massive explosion, the officials told AFP, warning that they were still working off initial reports and the death toll may increase.
"Numbers can change," one official said. Three civilians and one policeman were also killed, bringing to 17 the total number of dead in the attack claimed by the Taliban, who have been waging a 10-year insurgency against foreign forces and the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai. The attack was the deadliest for the coalition since the death of 30 US troops, including 25 US Special Operations Forces, whose helicopter was shot down in mid-August south of Kabul in Wardak province.
Thick black smoke could be seen rising from an fire still raging at the scene, cordoned off by Afghan and ISAF soldiers, while fire hoses were putting out another blaze nearby. Nato's coalition forces were seen carrying the charred bodies of some of those killed away on stretchers from the wreckage of the bombed bus.
The attack came a day after the Taliban launched a four-hour long assault on a US-run civilian-military base and NDS local branch in the southern city of Kandahar, the spiritual birthplace of the insurgent movement. Also on Saturday, three Nato troops were killed when a man dressed in an Afghan army uniform turned his gun on them, the coalition said, adding that the shooter was later killed.
An Afghan soldier opened fire on foreign forces on Saturday, killing three Australian army trainers in the volatile south of Afghanistan, Nato and a local commander said. The alliance force said two service members were killed and one other later died of his injuries after "an individual wearing an Afghan National Army uniform apparently turned his weapon on Afghan and coalition forces."
It said the shooter was also killed in the incident but gave no further details. General Abdul Hameed, commander of 205 Atal corps in the south said an Afghan soldier with three years' experience had carried out the shooting in the volatile southern province of Uruzgan.
He said six other Australian troops and one Afghan officer had been wounded. "At around 8:30 this morning an ANA soldier named Darwish who had been serving as an ANA soldier for the past three years opened fire on a group of Australian military officers, killing three of them and injuring six others as well as one ANA officer," said Hameed.
"The attacker was also gunned down by ISAF soldiers." Fears of infiltration within the Afghan army ranks have risen as Western backers fund and train a huge expansion of the fledgling national force ahead of the withdrawal of all foreign combat forces scheduled for 2014. The announcement came as a suicide car bomber in the capital Kabul struck a US-run Nato bus travelling through the south-west of the city, killing at least 17 people, including 13 US soldiers.