| Submit your comments on this article |
| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Two U.S. Soldiers Killed in Afghanistan |
| 2004-10-16 |
| The attack Thursday in Uruzgan province, northwest of Deh Rawood, where a U.S. military base is located, occurred less than a week after Afghanistan held landmark elections which passed off largely peacefully despite threats of attacks by Taliban-led rebels who had vowed to sabotage the vote. "Two coalition soldiers were killed and three wounded when their patrol was struck by an improvised explosive device," Maj. Mark McCann, a U.S. military spokesman in Kabul, said in a brief statement. (These tragic deaths of fighting heros combating the worst form of evil are not in vain.) Another U.S. official confirmed the casualties were American soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division. About 18,000 U.S. soldiers make up the vast majority of the coalition forces hunting Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in southern and eastern Afghanistan. Uruzgan Gov. Jan Mohammed Khan reported the incident on Friday. He said a remote-controlled mine detonated under an American jeep on patrol in Kishi area of the province's Charcheno district on Thursday afternoon and that American and Afghan forces have stepped up patrols in the area. He said just one U.S. soldier was wounded. McCann denied a report from Khan that a U.S. helicopter had opened fire on the suspected attacker as he fled on a motorbike, killing him. "No U.S. helicopter was involved in the incident," the spokesman said. McCann said that with the two deaths on Thursday, 105 U.S. soldiers have died in or around Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom, launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |