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May God bless their families...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...200857_pf.html

Suicide bomber kills 6 troops in Afghanistan

By Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, December 12, 2010; 2:58 PM

KABUL - Six U.S. troops were killed Sunday when a man rammed a minivan packed with explosives into a newly built military installation in Kandahar Province, U.S. and Afghan officials said.

The attack in a farming village in Zhari district, a Taliban stronghold where American soldiers are attempting to restore Afghan government control, was the latest in a string of incidents that have made the onset of winter here unusually deadly.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted online. The statement said the suicide bomber, identified as Ahmadullah, drove the minivan packed with 2,000 kilograms of explosives into the building.

The statement said U.S. soldiers had been busy in recent days turning a large house into an outpost.

U.S. forces have suffered heavy casualties in Kandahar this year as they have built a network of small outposts in and around the country's second largest city, the birthplace of the Taliban movement.

U.S. military and some Afghan officials say the effort has curbed the Taliban's control in key areas the group controlled until recently.