Taliban Kills Americans Hours After Peace Office Opens

Taliban insurgents aren't letting up the fight in Afghanistan despite the opening of an office for peace talks. Four American troops were killed in a rocket attack on a convoy near Bagram Air Base just hours after the Taliban office opened its doors in Qatar, the New York Times reports. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which came as Afghan forces formally took charge of the country's security.

In another setback for hopes of stability, President Hamid Karzai announced that the Afghan government was pulling out of talks on a new security deal with the US, the AP reports. The move is believed to be a protest at his government being sidelined by US-Taliban talks, though his official statement said only that the pullout was in response to the "contradiction between acts and the statements made by the United States of America in regard to the peace process." (More Taliban peace talks stories.)