Afghan contractor survived Taliban attack on US convoy

KABUL: A contractor that officials initially reported to have been killed in a Taliban attack on a convoy at a US air base in fact survived the incident, NATO said on Tuesday.

Three US troops were killed in the suicide bomb attack outside Bagram Air Base north of Kabul on Monday.

"The contractor who was reported as killed, is alive," NATO's Resolute Support mission said in a statement.



The contractor, an Afghan citizen, was in stable condition and was treated at Bagram, officials said.

Monday's blast was the deadliest for US forces in Afghanistan this year, and brings to seven the number of American troops killed in 2019, compared to 12 for all of last year.

The US now has some 14,000 troops in Afghanistan — down from a peak of around 100,000 — most of them deployed to train and advise Afghan counterparts.