A US service member and a Romanian soldier have been killed in a Taliban suicide car bombing in Kabul, the Nato Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan said.
The statement gave no details, simply saying they were killed in action in the Afghan capital yesterday.
The name of the US service member was being withheld for 24 hours until the family was notified in accordance with Pentagon policy.
The Romanian soldier was also not identified.
Afghan officials said the suicide car bombing at a checkpoint in an area close to the Resolute Support mission and the US embassy in Kabul also killed at least 10 civilians.
This comes during a crucial time of negotiation between the United States and the Taliban in an attempt to develop a framework for US withdrawal in the region.
MEANWHILE, China has urged Canada to “reflect on its mistakes” and immediately release a Huawei executive detained in Vancouver.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang made the comments following the appointment of a new Canadian ambassador to China.
Geng said he hoped the envoy, Dominic Barton, will play an active role in improving ties, which he said are “facing serious difficulties”.
Relations between China and Canada were severely damaged when Meng Wanzhou – an executive at Chinese tech giant Huawei and the daughter of its founder – was arrested at Vancouver’s airport on December 1 at the request of the US.
ELSEWHERE, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to allow Syrian refugees to leave Turkey for Western countries unless a so-called “safe zone” inside Syria is established soon.
Erdogan made the threat in a speech to his ruling party officials.
He said: “We will be forced to open the gates. We cannot be forced to handle the burden alone.”
The Turkish leader also added that Turkey “did not receive the support needed from the world” to help it cope with Syrian refugees.
FINALLY, a French court has ruled that a rooster called Maurice can keep crowing, rejecting a complaint from neighbours who were suing over noise nuisance.
Maurice’s owner Corinne Fesseau will be able to keep the rooster on the small island of Oleron, off France’s Atlantic coast.
Her lawyer Julien Papineau said that Fesseau “is happy. She cried when I told her the court’s decision”.
Maurice’s dawn crowing is exasperating Fesseau’s neighbours, a retired couple.
The plaintiffs were ordered to pay €1000 in damages to Fesseau, plus court costs.
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