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Afghanistan
US aircrews show Taliban no mercy
2007-04-29
It's elk and sitting duck season in Helmand!
Caught in the middle of the Helmand river, the fleeing Taliban were paddling their boat back to shore for dear life. Smoke from the ambush they had just sprung on American special forces still hung in the air, but their attention was fixed on the two helicopter gunships that had appeared above them as their leader, the tallest man in the group, struggled to pull what appeared to be a burqa over his head.

As the boat reached the shore, Captain Larry Staley tilted the nose of the lead Apache gunship downwards into a dive. One of the men turned to face the helicopter and sank to his knees. Capt Staley's gunner pressed the trigger and the man disappeared in a cloud of smoke and dust. By the time the gunships had finished, 21 minutes later, military officials say 14 Taliban were confirmed dead, including one of their key commanders in Helmand.

The mission is typical of a new, aggressive, approach adopted by American forces in southern Afghanistan and particularly in Helmand, where British troops last year bore the brunt of some of the heaviest fighting since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
Posted by:Steve White

#30  Burning flesh is something that you NEVER forget. It is very nasty. That being said, I think that napalm would be a good weapon against concentrations of Taliban. Would get the message across.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2007-04-29 22:58  

#29  LOL BorgBoy

/Fred Geee (the gee is for good 'un) Sanford
Posted by: Shipman   2007-04-29 21:36  

#28  Accusations of 'Cold Blooded Murder' by Murtha in 5... 4... 3...

Apologies from the State Department as well...

BTW: Good shooting!
Posted by: CrazyFool   2007-04-29 21:16  

#27  Once they see their buds cooked alive and receive a whiff of the odor, they never forget.

Seeing as how scorched humans are supposed to smell like roast pork, there could be a double payoff in terms of disincentive and uncleanliness. Even if there wasn't, just like with fuel-air bombs, napalm and taliban were meant for each other.
Posted by: Zenster   2007-04-29 21:14  

#26  Old Pat,
I heartily agree. Napalm has proved it's usefulness Very effective for mass attacks as Talibuns frequently use. Good for caves. And, along the same lines, don't forget Flame Tracks. Beautiful sight. FF'd Muslims at 150 yards. The effect on the enemy is devastating. Once they see their buds cooked alive and receive a whiff of the odor, they never forget.
Posted by: Woozle Elmeter2970   2007-04-29 19:25  

#25  Re #6: "DON'T FIRE UNTIL YOU SEE THE WHITES!"
_____________________________________

Revolutionary War ancestor of Redd Foxx
Posted by: borgboy2001   2007-04-29 18:55  

#24  So where's the gun/ copilot camera footage of the "lions of i-slam" getting their Burkas on?

Would be a live Leak hit!
Posted by: Bright Pebbles in Blairistan   2007-04-29 17:57  

#23  Not enough killing. 1200 sound better.
Posted by: Enver Angaiter1337   2007-04-29 17:15  

#22  "Stop, you would'nt hit a wimmin with a child!"
"No, I'd hit her with automatic weapon fire."
To paraphase Walt Kelly
Posted by: bruce   2007-04-29 16:59  

#21  the tallest man in the group, struggled to pull what appeared to be a burqa over his head.

Proof positive.
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2007-04-29 16:52  

#20  Ptah hows that dang fire doing? If we get a wind from the NE it's bad biz.
Posted by: Shipman   2007-04-29 14:42  

#19  Excellent. I'm with sinse: this is the way it should always have been done.
Posted by: Ptah   2007-04-29 14:28  

#18  I like the way the talibunnies got busy puting on burkhas as soon as the gunships showed up.

Oh great lions of Islam!

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al   2007-04-29 14:20  

#17  this the way it should always be done
Posted by: sinse   2007-04-29 14:14  

#16  It's elk and sitting duck season in Helmand!

More like eel and slimeballs, but that's ok - as long as the talislimes are the ones dying.

I still think we're missing a major weapons system in this war. I know we got shredded for using napalm in Vietnam, but the da$$$$ stuff works. Hit a bunker with napalm, and it doesn't matter that fifteen people are inside - they're dead. Don't use it in towns and villages, but when we catch the slimeballs out in the open, fry them. It also keeps the idiots from hauling away their dead and giving them "hero's burials" (who wants to haul away 140lbs of overcooked meat?). We are being far too "nice", and it's costing us casualties.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2007-04-29 14:13  

#15  Them boys just don't know how to play this game .
Posted by: Matt   2007-04-29 12:04  

#14  Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Posted by: Anonymoose   2007-04-29 09:58  

#13  After the turn of the century
in the cold blue skies over Helamnd See
Came a roar and a thunder not recently heard
Like the scream and the sound of a big war bird
Up in the sky, a Jooo in a plane
Avner Greenburg was his name
14 men tried, and 14 men died
Now they're buried vaporized together on the countryside.

/Royal Guardsmans
yeah I'm that old, sorry about the earworm
Posted by: Shipman   2007-04-29 08:58  

#12  Stories like this really make my day. More please! Preferably with video of beareded mouth-breathers being shredded by machine-gun fire.
Posted by: Sonar   2007-04-29 08:28  

#11  Coalition attacks on mistakenly identified fully identified dozens of civilians dead and wounded and can act as a recruiting sergeant for the terrorists. without Muslims caring about it and while MSM do their best to air colalition's unwanted collateral damage and silence Jihadist savagery.
Posted by: JFM   2007-04-29 08:22  

#10  Lessons as old as warfare. Never turn your back on the enemy. Calvary will chop up infantry in the open. Talibs should read more than the Koran.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins   2007-04-29 08:14  

#9  commanders must hope that the Taliban do not get their hands on the weaponry that has made life so perilous for pilots in Iraq,

The ISI is probably working hard to ship anti-aircraft missiles to the Taliban right now...

Posted by: John Frum   2007-04-29 07:16  

#8  The attack, and four other missions against suspected Taliban compounds, are clearly effective, but the stakes are high. Coalition attacks on mistakenly identified targets here, as in Iraq, have left dozens of civilians dead and wounded and can act as a recruiting sergeant for the terrorists.

Just more MSM propaganda camouflaged as reporting. It's no wonder the editorialist who wrote this crap is named Chamberlain.

Posted by: Lemuel Shaiter3417   2007-04-29 05:07  

#7  Take no prisoners because if you do it will allow the Dhimms the chance to invent new rights for them.
Posted by: Lemuel Shaiter3417   2007-04-29 05:02  

#6  Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes! Cigars all around, boys!!
Posted by: smn   2007-04-29 03:33  

#5  Coalition attacks on mistakenly identified targets here, as in Iraq, have left dozens of civilians dead and wounded and can act as a recruiting sergeant for the terrorists.

Oh, horseshit. Facts, please? How many of the unintentional kills of non-combatants have involved enemy war crimes (treachery, deliberate endangerment of non-combatants - uh, they're actually very well-established war crimes, guys, go look it up)? Oh, that's right - 100% of them.

So what he MEANT to write was that "deliberate terrorist use of civilians as shields - a grievous war crime - has in limited cases resulted in air attacks killing non-combatants in Iraq and Afghanistan". No kidding - this is exactly what a literate, reasonable journalistic dispatch would sound like in reference to this issue. Imagine the difference in public attitudes if literate, informed reporting like this were the norm.


Posted by: Verlaine   2007-04-29 02:40  

#4  You just see a big dust cloud where the person used to be

Works for me. Good hunting, troops!
Posted by: Zenster   2007-04-29 01:10  

#3  Tales like this just warm the cockles of one's heart. Great shooting lads. Mincemeat is always a favorite dish whenever Muslims are involved.
Posted by: Woozle Elmeter2970   2007-04-29 00:39  

#2  No fair.
Posted by: Danking70   2007-04-29 00:37  

#1  That's what it takes. Lenient, aggressive ROE's and a take-no-prisoner attitude.
Posted by: anymouse   2007-04-29 00:17  

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