8 US Troops Killed in Taliban Attacks

Eight American troops died in attacks in southern Afghanistan in the last 24 hours, including a car bombing and gunfight outside a police compound in Kandahar. In that attack, a suicide attacker slammed a car bomb into the gate of the headquarters of the elite Afghan National Civil Order Police. Minutes later, insurgents opened fire with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Three US troops, an Afghan policeman, and five civilians were killed.

Four more American troops were killed by a roadside bomb in the south, while one more US service member died the same day of wounds from a gunbattle. So far in July, 45 international troops have died in Afghanistan, 33 of them Americans, as the Taliban push back against a coalition effort to secure the volatile region. (More Afghanistan stories.)