KABUL, Afghanistan _It was the deadliest incident involving U.S. troops in Afghanistan this year: An armored U.S. military vehicle struck a roadside bomb planted by the Taliban outside the city of Ghazni on Tuesday, killing three service members.
Army Sgt. 1st Class Eric Michael Emond of Brush Prairie, Wash., Army Capt. Andrew Patrick Ross of Lexington, Va., and Air Force Staff Sgt. Dylan J. Elchin of Hookstown, Pa., were elite special operations troops deployed to what has become one of the most intense theaters of fighting in the 18th year of the war.
The city is the capital of the rugged province that has the same name and has long been a center of Taliban influence. But in the last few months, the insurgent group has seriously threatened zones once considered safely in Afghan government hands.
The Taliban ruled Afghanistan until the U.S. drove it from power in 2001. The story of how the resurgent militants have gained the upper hand in a strategically vital province illustrates the crisis facing the Afghanistan government as well as the Trump administration, which has been grasping for a way to end the war and for the first time considering direct peace talks with the insurgents.
