A car bomb blast in Afghanistan has killed five Americans, including three US soldiers and a young diplomat, while an American civilian died in a separate attack.
An Afghan doctor was also killed in Saturday's attack in Zabul province.
The US diplomat and other Americans were in a convoy of vehicles when the blast occurred, Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement.
The soldiers and the diplomat died in the blast along with a civilian employee of the Defence Department and Afghan civilians, Kerry said. His statement gave no overall death toll.
The convoy was near a hospital and a NATO base at the time of the explosion.
"Our American officials and their Afghan colleagues were on their way to donate books to students in a school in Qalat, the province's capital, when they were struck by this despicable attack," Kerry said in his statement.
Provincial governor Mohammad Ashraf Nasery was in the convoy, but was unharmed.
"One doctor and one civilian were killed and two of my body guards have been injured," he told the AFP news agency.
Taliban claim
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Zabul attack in a text message from Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, the group's spokesman.
He said a car bomb killed seven foreigners and wounded five others, though he later revised the toll to 13 foreigners killed and nine wounded
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