Kabul:
The NATO force has now 41,000 troops in Afghanistan, with about 29,000 from the US and just 300 from Poland.
All NATO combat soldiers will withdraw by December after 13 years of fighting the Taliban, with a follow-on mission of about 12,000 troops likely to stay on into 2015 on training and support duties. The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the attack via a recognised Twitter account.
“(A) powerful explosion destroyed 1 military vehicle, killing/wounding a number of American terrorists,” said Taliban spokesman Abdulqahar Balkhi.
Afghanistan is stuck in a political stalemate over election results, with the two presidential candidates in talks to resolve the prolonged dispute over who won the June 14 vote to replace President Hamid Karzai.
Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah have been wrangling over a power-sharing deal after the vote was engulfed in allegations of fraud that have threatened to spark instability as NATO troops pull out.
Ghani, who is widely tipped to emerge as the new president, won the run-off election according to preliminary results, but Abdullah has consistently said he was the victim of state-backed ballot-rigging.
