al-Rooters, of courseBritish Marines attacked a Taliban-held valley in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday but withdrew after a ferocious counterattack that withstood air strikes and artillery fire, witnesses said. One Royal Marine was killed and a second wounded during the battle, the UK Helmand Task Force (UKTF) said.
My sympathies to the families.
Scores of soldiers ran across a bridge over the Helmand River under a full moon shortly before daybreak and began sweeping south through wheatfields in the south of the province, the opium center of the world's major producer.
A Reuters cameraman said the Marines initially faced only sporadic resistance but when they advanced, Taliban fighters launched a ferocious, organized riposte
they had a sword?
with heavy weapons
like a ... 133mm gun? 120mm mortar? More likely a RPG or 60mm mortar
and tried to outflank the British troops.
The fierce resistance illustrated the challenges facing the NATO troops in Afghanistan where they are trying to subdue well-armed Taliban and other militants bolstered by profits from a record opium crop, according to Afghan and foreign officials.
Major Andy Plewes, who led the Royal Marines of Zulu Company 45 Commando, on the assault, said the soldiers had expected resistance: "What we didn't know was how strong it was. We don't currently have enough forces in the area to hold ground completely and that has to be done by Afghan security forces," he told a Reuters reporter with the Marines.
The 32,000-strong force NATO-led International Security Assistance Force took over command of the war against the Taliban from U.S.-led forces in October and has launched a string of offensives.
British casualties have been mounting since ISAF took over command of operations in southern Afghanistan at the end of July. Britain has lost 41 soldiers since the Taliban government was toppled in 2001, the bulk of them this year.
And how many talibunnies are dead? Eh?
The British forces, who make up the bulk of NATO forces in Helmand, opened fire from light armored vehicles and engaged small groups of guerrillas with mortars and machine guns.
Ah, so by "heavy weapons" he means crew-served light weapons.
Afghan police and soldiers have so far held just the bridgehead and the short road at the north end of the valley, criss-crossed by networks of ancient canals that make Helmand fertile enough to produce a third of the world's opium crop.
BARRAGES OF AIR STRIKES
Ummmm, Barrages come from artillery. Dude.
The Taliban withstood barrages of air strikes from Apache helicopters, 500 pound bombs dropped by B1 bombers and withering cannon fire from A-10 attack jets before the British finally withdrew after a 10-hour battle.
10 hours of combat ya say? Against a company of Royal Marines with supporting arms? And the Brits retreated?? Musta run outta targets to kill.
The
Sophisticated trenches? WTF izzat? Cable TV, Wine Cellar, iPod stereo? Prolly not. I think they mean the holes in the ground were almost linear.
This year has seen the worst fighting since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban's strict Islamist government in 2001. About 4,000 people have died, a quarter of them civilians.
And the rest of the dead were...NATO or US troops?
The alliance troops were deployed to aid reconstruction and to help Afghanistan's government by build stability. But they have been increasingly drawn into battles with the Taliban and other militants in the opium poppy-growing south.
Heh. Notice the editorial comment about opium.
Tuesday's assault was the latest in a series of battles by British forces around the bridgehead.
Major Plewes said he considered the assault a success as they had cleared out areas near the "D.C.," a tiny strip of road and ruined buildings on the eastern side of the Helmand River.
But without more Afghan troops to hold the ground there was little hope of doing much more.
"In the mean time we have to try to provide as much as security to the D.C. as possible," said Plewes.
Any enemy dead from the marine company...or the arty...or the B1...or apache...or A10? Nothing hit and the Brits forced to retreat by the brave lions of islam? Come on, this is actually an AP report, correct?