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Suicide attack killed American soldier, US says
The explosion that killed an American soldier on an Afghan military base this week was a suicide attack, the Pentagon has confirmed.
The explosion that killed an American soldier on an Afghan military base this week was a suicide attack, the Pentagon has confirmed.
It was not immediately clear how the attacker got into the base or how many people were wounded in Monday's blast. NATO referred questions to Afghan military officials because it happened on their base.
Today, Afghan Defence Ministry spokesman Gen Mohammad Zahir Azimi said he had received no information that the attack was a suicide bomb. The Taliban claimed responsibility in calls to news organisations in Kabul soon after the blast.
Sgt. Robert J Barrett, 20, of Fall River, Massachusetts, died Monday when a suicide bomber attacked his unit in the Afghan capital, according to a statement posted yesterday on the Pentagon website. Several US soldiers were also wounded.
Barrett's father, Paul Barrett, told The Standard-Times newspaper in Massachusetts that the attacker stole an Afghan uniform and infiltrated a group of Afghans his son and eight other US soldiers were training to be police officers.
The younger Barrett was the father of a 2-year-old daughter named Sophie Alexandra, the Fall River Herald-News reported yesterday.
