A Taliban ambush on a French platoon killed 10 soldiers in August. Now, a secret NATO review shows that the French did not have enough bullets, radios and other equipment. By contrast, the insurgents were dangerously well prepared.Hat tip: Lucianne
| Submit your comments on this article |
| Afghanistan |
| Taliban better armed than the French |
| 2008-09-21 |
| A Taliban ambush on a French platoon killed 10 soldiers in August. Now, a secret NATO review shows that the French did not have enough bullets, radios and other equipment. By contrast, the insurgents were dangerously well prepared. Hat tip: Lucianne |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #8 Welcome back sinse, I thought you wuz a troll at first. |
| Posted by: .5MT 2008-09-21 17:05 |
| #7 i wonder how much US aid is being used to fund the insurgency in Afghanistan? |
| Posted by: Paul 2008-09-21 17:01 |
| #6 It was not the Hizb Izlami who provided the popel who were good: it basically draws from the same poll than the Taliban and the people of Masud beat them again and agsin. I suspect that they were Chechens or perhaps Pakistani Spacial Forces in the area. Notice: zero proof, juts educated guess on who on the area can provide well trained personel and reasonably good snipers. |
| Posted by: JFM 2008-09-21 13:53 |
| #5 Welcome back indeed! |
| Posted by: lotp 2008-09-21 13:18 |
| #4 Not just Taliban. This from the Globe and Mail: "...the attackers cannot be described as purely Taliban; they likely included fighters from the Taliban movement, but also from Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hizb-i-Islami network, and perhaps from other groups. Senior officials said they suspect the involvement of Hazrat Noor, an extremist leader from South Waziristan, in the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan. A report in the French magazine Paris Match suggested a local commander named Farouki may be responsible. Yet another insurgent leader, Mullah Rahmatullah, has also taken credit for the ambush. Originally a commander for Hizb-i-Islami in the Uzbin valley, Mr. Rahmatullah now reputedly gets funding for his activities from both the Taliban and Mr. Hekmatyar. All reports may be correct, observers say, assuming that many groups co-operated on the attack." Oh, and welcome back, sinse. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2008-09-21 12:45 |
| #3 this really irks me to have a newspaper publish a SECRET Nato memo, and score a propaganda victory for the taliban, especially with the "the sky is falling" tone. It should be starnadrd practice to carry journalist as human shilds on colaition vehicles. in this one, the rescue of the wounded french paratrooper is made more complicated as communication equipments are not compatible Merci de Gaulle. |
| Posted by: JFM 2008-09-21 10:55 |
| #2 does this surprise anyone? Man it's good too be back and read some real news |
| Posted by: sinse 2008-09-21 10:51 |
| #1 This was forwarded my Michael Yon as well. Interesting article, though and like some commenters at the link, this really irks me to have a newspaper publish a SECRET Nato memo, and score a propaganda victory for the taliban, especially with the "the sky is falling" tone. But, then again, french msm have heavily indulged into the whole defeatist meme, much to the pleasure of all the "sovereignty guys" and all the anti-americans, left and right. Kinda funny, in a perverse way, to have the french army experiments the might of the "fighter-journalists" carrying water for ennemy propaganda against their own camp, out of sheer ideology. As for the G&M article itself, well, this doesn't surprize me much if what I've understood about the shortages and general lack of viable equipment in the french Army are true - and they probably are, too many concording sources. This reminds me of this Blackfive article from earlier this year, where two flaws of the french army are glaring, the lack of inter-operability with other allied forces (in this one, the rescue of the wounded french paratrooper is made more complicated as communication equipments are not compatible) and the lack of english fluency. On the plus side, I'm glad one commenter from the Great white north noticed that despite being outgunned and pinned down in a killing zone, the paras still managed to kill 15 taliban, as opposed to their 9 KIA (the 10th was killed in an unrelated road accident on the way home). |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2008-09-21 10:45 |