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| Afghanistan |
| Afghan policeman fires on US patrol, kills soldier |
| 2008-10-17 |
| An Afghan policeman hurled a grenade and opened fire on a U.S. military foot patrol in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday, killing an American soldier and raising fears that insurgents have infiltrated the police. It was the second attack by a policeman on U.S. soldiers in eastern Afghanistan in less than a month. The patrol was returning to a base in Bermel district of Paktika province when they were attacked by the policeman, who was standing on a tower, the military said. The soldiers returned fire, killing the officer. Training of the police force and the Afghan national army are key elements in the U.S. strategy of dealing with a vicious Taliban-led insurgency that has spread in many parts of the country. Militants in Afghanistan have in the past disguised themselves in police or army uniforms when attacking Afghan and foreign troops, but real policemen were responsible for the attacks Thursday and last month. Then, an officer opened fire at a Paktia police station, killing a soldier and wounding three before he was fatally shot. |
| Posted by:ed |
| #6 my take on this (pure speculation) is that the Afghan policeman may have been confused as to who was approaching/moving and had not gotten the info that the group he fired on was friendlies. for all intents, he could have believed he was engaging a Taliban patrol and just made a poor decision. the other suggested motives here are equally likely, but my personal motto is "never attribute to malice what is easily explained by stupidity" |
| Posted by: Abu do you love 2008-10-17 18:44 |
| #5 that is their profile. they are idiots |
| Posted by: chris 2008-10-17 17:01 |
| #4 I'm curious about these Afghan police who turn on US soldiers. It seems certain to me that they intend to die for their efforts. Did they join the police with a small-scale suicide as their primary mission? Or did they hope to gain valuable information. or what? To try to kill at most 3 or 4 of their enemy for their own life seems inefficient to me. Surely, they could wait for mess hall times, field meeting times, riding with the troops times and others that might provide a greater potential target. Does anyone reading this have an idea of the profile(s) for these idiots? |
| Posted by: Richard of Oregon 2008-10-17 12:19 |
| #3 Leopard. Spots. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2008-10-17 09:36 |
| #2 as long as another one is dead, by the way, this has nothing too do with the article but them always calling others civilians. those civilians support the insurgents and the kiddies grow up too be more insurgents |
| Posted by: chris 2008-10-17 07:54 |
| #1 The soldiers returned fire, killing the officer Good policy. Better policy would be killed by gutshot. Best would be death due to delayed medical response to gutshot due to a deniable overabundance of caution. |
| Posted by: gorb 2008-10-17 01:19 |