Two U.S. soldiers were among at least six killed by a roadside bomb attack on a bus packed with NATO troops in Afghanistan.
The attack last night, near Bagram airbase, south of the capital Kabul, killed both Afghan and U.S. soldiers.
The names of the soldiers have not been released.
A huge fissure was created in the road by the roadside blast which is said to have caused numerous injuries.
The soldiers' deaths took the total number of international troops to die in Afghanistan this year to 65, of which 50 were Americans. Some 3,500 foreign forces, including at least 2,210 American soldiers, have been killed since the war began in 2001.
The Bagram attack comes two days after the U.S. closed a prison on the airfield that held foreign detainees and is where two prisoners were killed during torture in 2002.
It also follows the release of a Senate report condemning the CIA for its use of torture on suspected terrorists at detention centres around the world.
At least 19 people were killed in three attacks across Kabul today, as well as yesterday's NATO bus attack.
Major General Afzal Aman, chief of operations at Kabul's Defence Ministry, said six Afghan soldiers died when a suicide bomber attacked another bus taking them home.
A black column of smoke lingered over the city after the explosion, which destroyed the bus and injured 18 people.
'A suicide bomber on foot detonated his explosives at the door of a bus carrying army soldiers,' Kabul police chief Hashmat Stanekzai confirmed.
A separate attack saw Taliban gunmen shoot dead a senior court official as he left his home.
The hardline Islamist insurgents run their own courts in parts of the country and consider the official judiciary to be corrupt.
Hours later Taliban fighters shot dead 12 workers clearing mines in southern Afghanistan, authorities said.
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