before starting Obama Wars in Syria and Ukraine.
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Three attacks by the Taliban in last 48 hours left at least two American soldiers and 18 Afghan soldiers dead, officials said Saturday, in what looks set to be a particularly bloody weekend in Afghanistan.
Two American soldiers died Friday as a result of a bomb that targeted a convoy of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force troops, a U.S. defense official said Saturday on condition of anonymity.
ISAF, which also reported the attack but did not release the nationalities of the victims, said the attack happened in eastern Afghanistan.
The Taliban claimed responsibility. Spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid tweeted that a U.S. convoy had been targeted in Bagram district and claimed five Americans were killed.
On Saturday morning, 12 Afghan soldiers who were clearing mines in southern Helmand province died in an attack, according to Omar Zwak, a spokesman for the provincial governor.
The soldiers were defusing devices planted by the Taliban to target military tanks and vehicles in an area between Shorabak and Nad Ali districts of southern Helmand, he said.
Afghan security forces who arrived at the scene of the attack killed three of the militants and arrested four others.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and said those killed were not genuine mine-clearers.
In an attack Saturday afternoon, a suicide bomber targeted a bus carrying Afghan National Army personnel in the Guzargah area of Kabul on Saturday afternoon, said Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry.
Six army personnel were killed and 18 other people were injured, including two women bystanders, he said.
The Taliban spokesman, Mujahid, claimed responsibility for the blast in an e-mail.
He said that from now on, Taliban attacks against foreign and Afghan forces would be stepped up.
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