Six U.S. troops killed outside U.S. airbase by suicide bomber on a motorcycle

Show Caption Hide Caption Suicide bomber in Afghanistan kills 6 NATO troops According to officials, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed six NATO troops in Afghanistan on Monday. A spokesperson for the coalition said the troops died as the result of a vehicle-born explosive device near Bagram Airfield.

Six American service members were killed Monday in a suicide bombing during a meeting near a U.S. base north of Kabul, in the largest U.S. loss of life from an attack this year, according to two senior Defense officials.

The meeting was targeted by a motorcyclist carrying a bomb. In addition to the servicemembers killed, three were injured, according to NATO command headquarters in Afghanistan. The attack occurred outside a sprawling U.S. airbase in Bagram, located 34 miles north of Kabul.

The senior Defense officials who confirmed that all six dead were Americans were not authorized to speak publicly. One official confirmed the deaths, while the second confirmed they were killed during a meeting.

"We're deeply saddened by this loss," said U.S. Brig. Gen. Wilson Shoffner, deputy chief of staff for NATO operations communications in Afghanistan.

Among the dead was a veteran New York Police Department detective, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said in a statement.

Bratton said Staff Sgt. Joe Lemm of the Bronx Street Crimes Unit was a member of the U.S. Air National Guard. Lemm was a 15-year veteran of the force, the New York Daily News reported. He was deployed three times, twice to Afghanistan and once to Iraq. He leaves behind a wife and two children.

The six troops killed Monday equal the largest loss of life this year for the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan. On Oct. 2, six airmen died when their C-130 cargo plane crashed at Jalalabad. So far this year, 16 U.S. troops have died in combat, many of them in aircraft crashes, according to Pentagon announcements.

The Taliban, which has been waging an insurgency against the U.S.-backed Afghan government, claimed responsibility in an email to AP. There are about 9,800 U.S.troops in Afghanistan, part of a NATO force of 13,000.

Last week, the Pentagon announced in an update on Afghanistan that the security situation for the second half of 2015 had "deteriorated with an increase in effective insurgent attacks."

Defense Secretary Ash Carter toured the country over the weekend, meeting with his top commander there, Army Gen. John Campbell. The general described a "very tough year," in which Taliban and Islamic State fighters have been able to mount deadly attacks. Campbell estimated there are as many as 3,000 fighters from the Islamic State there.

The suicide attack, Carter said in a statement Monday, "serves as a painful reminder of the dangers our troops face every day in Afghanistan."

