May God Comfort All Who Mourn
Posted on 07/13/2008 10:16:53 AM PDT by kristinn
At least eight US soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan in clashes with Taleban militants.
US commander Daniel Dwyer told the BBC the soldiers had been killed in clashes in the north-east of the country.
The BBC's Martin Patience in Kabul says it is one of the biggest single losses in a day for the coalition since the start of military operations there.
The attack came as international and Afghan security forces battled militants on several fronts.
On Sunday, US forces said 40 insurgents had been killed in Helmand province in the past 24 hours.
There are conflicting reports as to where the latest attack took place.
A foreign military spokesman said US soldiers and members of the Afghan National Army came under attack in Kunar province, near the border with Pakistan.
But Afghan officials insist the fighting took place in neighbouring Nuristan Province.
Nato reported that a small American Combat Outpost in Dara-I-Pech district of Kunar Province, came under heavy fire at around 04.30 local time.
It said insurgents had fired "with small arms, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars using homes, shops and the mosque in the village of Wanat for cover."
Local officials say a number of civilians and militants were killed in the attack.
Our correspondent says there are frequent attacks in the area.
In a separate incident on Sunday, a suicide bomber killed at least 21 people, many of them children, in a market in the Deh Rawud district of Uruzgan province.
Fox is quoting the AP saying 9 soldiers were killed in an attack involving machine guns and mortars.
Prayers up
I sure hope the attackers were read their Miranda rights and didn’t have their phones tapped without a court order.
Something’s not right with this story. While I’m not doubting the casualty count, something very bad happened that will probably result in some heads rolling in the U.S. Army’s high command there.
While the Taliban has been suffering enormous casualties for the last year in Helmand and the south, the most hard-core Taliban and Al Qaeda regulars have been in the northeast, adjacent to Kunar, and attacks from that direction have been predicted for a long time. We definitely need more resources up there.
"The ensuing fight led ANSF (Afghanistan National Security Forces) and coalition forces to return fire and call for precision air strikes,'' it said.
"At least 40 militants have been killed in the last two days, while over 30 enemy boats and several ... bridges were also destroyed on the Helmand River.''
Prayers up for these soldiers and their families.
Some number of soldiers curently assigned to Iraq ar possibly being reassigned to Afghanistan. Pakistan needs to understand that this escalation is their fault.
The AP report mentioned by Fox said the attack came from houses and a mosque.
Our prayers go out to the families of those brave soldiers. However, for the BBC to call these losses “heavy” is misleading. US Heavy losses are:
Antietam: North: One Day: 2108
South: Same Day: 1,546
D Day: 1465 Dead
Those are heavy casualties for a single day of fighting. God bless our troops and give us the wisdom to keep things in perspective.
I think we’ve reached the point with the tribal regions on the Pak-Afghan border that we should just start bombing the crap out those Taliban strongholds in Pakistan until they are destroyed.
Thanks for finding this- I was looking for a NON AP link for this story to post.
Thanks and prayers to our soldiers and their familes.
Pure and simple self-defense at this point.
Prayers for the families.
estimates range from 2,500 to more than 5,000 dead on D-Day.
Remember the prison break? Something like 400 prisoners got free. Wasn’t that in Afghanistan?
F*ng cowards we're fighting there. Come out and die like a man if you have the guts!
Yes Northern ‘Stan, it resulted in the first known casualty of the war for us....a Southern boy named Spann......ex-marine...left behind a family with several little kids I think.
He was a first-on-the-ground hire by the CIA working with the Northern Alliance.
That was an ancient prison where the bad guys were being held and it was also where Johnny Jihad the Marin County Lib Raised Brat was complicit in Spann’s death by not alerting him when he knew the prisoner revolt was coming. Spann was killed by a mob....they tore and beat him to death. Typical of Kush savages.
Mazar-i-Sharif was the place.
From Google
“Almost 133000 troops from England, Canada and the United States landed on D-Day. Casualties from the three countries during the landing numbered 10300. ...”
www.eisenhower.archives.gov/dl/dday/ddaypage.html
something very bad happened that will probably result in some heads rolling in the U.S. Army’s high command there.......................................................Sometimes an ambush is just that and it sounds like the enemy got lucky.
This version of the story fails to mention the ambush fire came from homes and mosques!
Time to treat mosques as terror headquarters and flatten them.
The idea that we should continue to let them use our culture and “rules of engagement” against is foolish and must end NOW!
The Dwyer they are quoting isn’t a spokesman but the head of a navy reconstruction team.
There is nothing on the DOD afganistan site.
God Bless the North.
And God Bless the Rebs.
Thank you for that timely reminder, Johnny.
The governor of Nuristan, Doctor Hazrat Hazratin Noor, told The Times: "The Taliban attacked the US base yesterday and the American planes bombed the area. After the attack, the US troops decided to move their base to the district centre of Wanat and they tried to build shelters there in the bazaar overnight. Now the Taliban have attacked again."
This could be very bad news.
Oh, and 40 enemy were killed, a 5/1 kill ratio.
God bless the souls of our brave soldiers and may He comfort their families.
Amen
Ping
Already ready here and posted...:-)
Though details of the attack were not immediately available, an earlier statement from NATO's International Security Assistance Force said Afghan and ISAF soldiers were involved in "heavy fighting" with insurgents at a command outpost in Kunar province.
"Insurgents have been firing at the [command outpost] with small arms, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, using homes, shops and the mosque in the village of Wanat for cover," according to the statement.
ISAF and Afghan soldiers, backed by air support, responded with small arms, machine guns, mortars and artillery, the statement said.
"There have been casualties on both sides of the fight, but accurate numbers could not be confirmed as the fighting is ongoing at the time of this release," the statement said.
Many prayers up for our Troopers and their families. You are in our thoughts, hearts and prayers.
We may never know. Soldiers may have just dropped their guard and bunched up. In Vietnam, Special Forces use of guides and interpreters of dubious alleigance probably resulted in more that one SF team going missing.
We already have a winner in the contest for who can make the most ignorant remark about a story that is completely lacking in verified facts and contextual framework. Congratulations, you can claim your prize over at your nearest Obama campaign office.
My mother in law (RIP) said we should “ drop the A bomb on em” back in 2001. With quick thinking like hers- this would have been over long ago. What is stopping us now I wonder??
Info here :
Fighting ongoing :
Seems to be the same story,,,
Dara-I-Pech district of Kunar province...
My mother in law (RIP) said we should “ drop the A bomb on em” back in 2001. With quick thinking like hers- this would have been over long ago. What is stopping us now I wonder??
I believe Just Lori was referring to the Kandahar prison break that occurred on June 26, 2008. More than 1000 prinsoners, including 400 Taliban escaped when a suicide bomber blew open the gates to the prison.
“Militant attacks killed 10 NATO soldiers and at least two dozen Afghans on Sunday”
~~~
What was the unit?
Anyone who considers 9 killed to be ‘heavy losses’ is just exposing their ignorance.
It’s a personal tragedy for the families involved, and a loss to the country of potential future leaders, but the leftist media is just showing us their lack of intellectual skills.
We could not fight D-Day or even WWII in today's world. The left, anti-war cowards, Dimocrats, would not stand for it. Americans would not rush to join like they did after Pearl Harbor. Even though many did join after 9-1-1, it was no where like after Pearl. Sad testimony too today's America, that people do not want to defend their country, rights, freedoms, etc. Naw, we just give them away free today for free stuff from the Marxists Dimocrats.
I agree wholeheartedly with you! Let hell rain down on the scum!
********************
July 13, 2008 Sunday Rajab 9, 1429
By Abdul Sami Paracha
KOHAT, July 12: Seventeen Frontier Constabulary personnel were killed on Saturday after militants ambushed an FC convoy in Hangu district. Several soldiers were injured in the attack.
Officials said the convoy was ambushed by the Taliban while it was on its way to Doaba from Fort Zargari.
During the 40-minute-long encounter, one local militant ‘commander’, Razeem, was killed and two of his colleagues were injured.
No reinforcements were sent to help the convoy ward off the attack, which took place in an area where two security vehicles were attacked just a few hours before the deadly ambush.
Helicopter gunships pounded surrounding hills where militants were believed to be hiding.
Mullah Sanaullah, a militant ‘commander’, sent a message to the administration after the ambush that his forces would attack security officials if they came to collect the bodies lying in vehicles.
The administration sent a two-member delegation, comprising MNA Pir Haider Ali Shah and Hangu district nazim Khan Afzal, to go to a seminary in the Kahi village and constitute a jirga of clerics for talks with militants on retrieving the bodies and the injured. The jirga is expected to come back in case talks are successful and hand over the bodies early in the morning.
Noorzad, a local, told Dawn that the bodies, including that of the convoy’s commanding officer, were lying inside the vehicles. Three of the soldiers had been slaughtered by Taliban before they left the area, he claimed.
The Kahi seminary is supposed to be managed by Rafiuddin, an aide to Baitullah Mehsud’s deputy. Rafiuddin is currently in the custody of security forces. Clashes erupted after the administration refused to release him.
Jirga members also accused the government of rigidity regarding a request for the handing over of the three militants who were among seven people arrested by police during a flag march on Thursday. The jirga had suspended talks on Friday.
In the first incident, which occurred near the Zargari toll plaza, the militants attacked an FC convoy, but security personnel escaped unhurt. However, a boy was seriously injured in shooting by the militant.
Earlier, security forces arrested four suspects from a car after the driver ignored a warning to stop at a checkpost in the Doaba bazaar. The vehicle was impounded after a chase by security personnel.
Doaba, Thall, Zargari, Tora Warai, Chappri, Togh Sarai and Hangu towns remained tense for a third consecutive day.
Taliban launch deadly attack on a combat outpost in Afghanistan's Kunar province
By July 13, 2008 1:46 PM
The Taliban launched a complex attack against a newly established combat outpost in the Pech district in Afghanistan's eastern province of Kunar. Heavy fighting is currently underway, and US forces are said to have taken multiple casualties in the attack.
The Taliban launched the attack early this morning at approximately 4:30 AM according to a press release from the International Security Assistance Force. The Taliban initiated the battle "with small arms, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars using homes, shops and the mosque in the village of Wanat for cover."
Afghan and US forces based at the outpost have fought back and called in artillery and helicopter support and airstrikes.
Afghan, US, and Taliban casualties have not been released as the fighting is ongoing, but ISAF reported that "there have been casualties on both sides of the fight." The Associated Press reported that nine US soldiers have been killed. If true, the attack would mark one of the largest incidents of US casualties during a ground engagement in Afghanistan.
In separate incident in Uruzgan province in southern Afghanistan, a Taliban suicide bomber killed 24 Afghans and wounded more than 40 in a deadly suicide attack at a market. Security officials said Afghan police were the target, and several policemen were reported killed in the attack.
Today's attacks plays directly into al Qaeda and the Taliban's propaganda and military strategy. The Taliban have launched a series of assaults on US and Afghan bases and patrol and government centers throughout the eastern regions of Afghanistan that border Pakistan’s tribal areas. The extremists hope to destabilize the Afghan government and overrun an outpost or district center as a show of strength.
Al Qaeda spokesman and Afghan commander Abu Yahya al Libi released a seven-minute videotape earlier this week titled "A Message To One of the Sheiks." Al Libi said the attacks on Coalition bases and suicide attacks show the Taliban is gaining strength and is "determined to turn the upcoming winter to hell for the infidels." The Taliban in Afghanistan "are going through continuous triumphs ... and are in a better shape compared with what they had been before," he stated.
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