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April 8, 2019, 7:14 PM GMT

By Courtney Kube, Mosheh Gains and Tim Stelloh

Editor's note: A correction has been appended to this article after officials said a military contractor, previously identified as having been killed, was alive.

A car bomb outside of Afghanistan's Bagram Airfield on Monday killed three U.S. service members, and wounded three other American service members, officials said.

The injured personnel were evacuated and receiving medical care, the NATO-led Resolute Support mission said in a statement.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

The attack occurred amid peace talks between the Trump administration and the Taliban, an extremist Islamic movement that ruled Afghanistan until they were ousted by a U.S.-led coalition following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The Taliban now operate as an insurgent force with control over large swaths of the country.

The United States is seeking to wind down its 17-year-old war in Afghanistan and withdraw the roughly 14,000 American troops deployed there.

It isnt clear how much progress has been made. Talks with the group concluded last month with no agreement to end the war, and a top Afghan official, Hamdullah Mohib, offered a scathing critique of the Trump administrations handling of those talks.

Mohib, who is Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's national security adviser, claimed that Kabuls government had been shut out of negotiations and sold out by Trumps envoy for reconciliation.

State Department officials dismissed his criticism, saying the U.S. remains in close contact with Ghani and other senior officials.

The Trump administration later demanded an apology from Mohib, who refused.

CORRECTION (April 9, 2019, 11:15 a.m.): An earlier version of this article contained incorrect information from U.S. officials about the status of the contractor. U.S. officials originally said the contractor had been killed, but on Tuesday said that the contractor, an Afghan citizen, was alive and had been treated for his injuries.

Courtney Kube is a national security and military reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit.

Mosheh Gains is a Pentagon producer for NBC News.

Tim Stelloh is a reporter for NBC News, based in California.

Elisha Fieldstadt contributed.

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3 American service members killed in car bombing near ...

Sgt. Justin Updegraff/U.S. Marine Corps via AP, FILE U.S. Soldiers with Task Force Iron maneuver an M-777 howitzer, so it can be towed into position at Bost Airfield, Afghanistan, June 10, 2017.

Three American service members and a contractor were killed by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan on Monday, according to Col. David Butler, a spokesperson for U.S. Forces Afghanistan.

Three other Americans service members were also wounded in the attack, which occurred near Bagram Air Base. The wounded were evacuated and were receiving medical care.

Prior to Monday's attack, there had been a total of four American troops killed in Afghanistan in 2019: Sgt. Cameron Meddock, Staff Sgt. Joshua Z. Beale, Spc. Joseph P. Collette, and Sgt. 1st Class Will D. Lindsay.

There are 14,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, many of whom train, advise and assist Afghan forces in their fight against the Taliban.

In February, acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said he had not received orders from President Donald Trump to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan by half, but U.S. military planners had been tasked with a possible troop reduction after internal discussions began late last year, according to U.S. officials.

(MORE: Acting defense secretary says no orders to reduce forces in Afghanistan)

U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Amb. Zalmay Khalilzad has led direct talks with the Taliban which resulted last month on an agreement "in draft" related to American troop withdrawal and the Taliban's commitment to deny safe haven to terror groups. However, no final decisions have been made.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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3 American service members, 1 contractor killed in attack in ...

Three American service members and a U.S. contractor were killed when their convoy hit a roadside bomb on Monday near the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, U.S. officials said in a statement. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

The U.S. and NATO Resolute Support mission said the four Americans were killed near the Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, while three others were wounded in the explosion. The base in Bagram district is located in northern Parwan province and serves as the main U.S. air facility in the country.

The wounded were evacuated and are receiving medical care, the statement said. It added that in accordance with U.S. Department of Defense policy, the names of service members killed in action were being withheld until after the notification of next of kin.

In their claim of responsibility, the Taliban said they launched the attack and that one of their suicide bombers detonated his explosives-laden vehicle near the NATO base. The conflicting accounts could not be immediately reconciled.

The fatalities, which bring to seven the number of U.S. soldiers killed so far this year in Afghanistan, underscore the difficulties in bringing peace to the war-wrecked country even as Washington has stepped up efforts to find a way to end the 17-year war, America's longest.

There are about 14,000 U.S. forces in Afghanistan, supporting embattled Afghan forces as they struggle on two fronts facing a resurgent Taliban who now hold sway over almost half the country and also the Islamic State affiliate, which has sought to expand its footprint in Afghanistan even as its self-proclaimed "caliphate" has crumbled in Syria and Iraq.

Last year, 13 U.S. service members were killed in Afghanistan.

The Taliban have continued to carry out daily attacks on Afghan security forces despite holding several rounds of peace talks with the United States in recent months. The Taliban have refused to meet with the Afghan government, which they view as a U.S. puppet.

Meanwhile, the Taliban have agreed to take part in an all-Afghan gathering later this month in Qatar, where the insurgents maintain a political office. But the Taliban say they will not recognize any government official attending the gathering as a representative of the Kabul government, only as an individual Afghan participant.

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3 U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan along with contractor, 3 ...

Afghanistan is highly prone to intense and recurring natural hazards such as flooding, earthquakes, snow avalanches, landslides and droughts due to its geographical location and years of environmental degradation.

Climate change also poses a threat to Afghanistans natural resources, of which the majority of Afghans depend for their livelihoods. Afghanistan faces significant impacts of climate change and disasters which impact growth prospects.

The countrys low level of socio-economic development makes it extremely vulnerable to disasters, resulting in frequent loss of lives, livelihoods, and public and private property. Since 1980, disasters caused by natural hazards have affected 9 million people and caused over 20,000 fatalities in the country.

The Establishing Critical Risk Information project ensures that policy makers, government counterparts, partner organizations and agencies have access to comprehensive multi-hazard risk assessments. These inform and integrate development planning, public policy and investments in assuring the resilience of new and existing reconstruction to natural hazards and climate change which are critical to secure both lives and livelihoods.

This project therefore supports the creation, understanding and accessibility of hazard, exposure, vulnerability and risk information as a critical component for effective management of disaster risk and climate risk in Afghanistan.

With funding from the Government of Japan and the Global Facility for Disaster Risk Reduction and in close cooperation with the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Agency, the World Bank has produced a comprehensive multi-hazard risk assessment at the national level, including in depth assessments for selected geographic areas.

Read more:
Afghanistan: Disaster Risk Management & Resilience Program

Snow-capped mountains in Badakhshan province, Afghanistan. Landslides are common in the remote, mountainous area, often caused by heavy rain and snow. Massoud Hossaini/AP hide caption

Snow-capped mountains in Badakhshan province, Afghanistan. Landslides are common in the remote, mountainous area, often caused by heavy rain and snow.

At least 30 workers were killed and several others injured when a gold mine in northeastern Afghanistan collapsed Sunday, local officials said.

Nek Mohammad Nazari, a spokesman for the provincial governor, told Agence France-Presse the victims were illegally searching for gold and had dug deep in a riverbed in the Kohistan district of Badakhshan province when the walls caved in.

Local villagers and the Taliban alike rely heavily on illegal mining for revenue in the region.

"The villagers have been involved in this business for decades with no government control over them," Nazari said. "We have sent a rescue team to the area, but villagers have already started removing bodies from the site."

Sanaullah Rohani, a spokesman for the police chief in Badakhshan, told the Associated Press about 50 people were working in the mine at the time of the collapse and a number of victims are in critical condition. Rohani said the tragedy was caused by a landslide.

Landslides are common in the remote, mountainous area, often caused by heavy rain and snow. In 2014, a pair of huge mudslides killed hundreds of people in Badakhshan province. As many as 2,500 people reportedly may have died in that disaster.

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At least 30 workers killed in Afghanistan gold mine collapse ...