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| Afghanistan |
| Eight U.S. troops killed in Afghan battle |
| 2009-10-04 |
| KABUL (Reuters) – Insurgents stormed remote outposts in eastern Afghanistan killing eight Americans in the deadliest battle in more than a year, the U.S. military said on Sunday. Afghan provincial authorities said they had lost contact with scores of Afghan policemen after the day-long attack on Saturday and did not know whether they were dead or alive. NATO said at least two Afghan soldiers were killed. The fighting in the Kamdesh district of eastern Nuristan was in an area from which U.S. forces had already announced plans to withdraw as part of commander General Stanley McChrystal's strategy to focus his forces on population centers. Militia from a local mosque and a nearby village launched the attacks on two joint NATO and Afghan outposts, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said. The NATO troops in the area are American. "My heart goes out to the families of those we have lost and to their fellow soldiers who remained to finish the fight," Colonel Randy George, commander of the U.S. force in the eastern mountain area bordering Pakistan, said in the statement. "This was a complex attack in a difficult area. Both the U.S. and Afghan soldiers fought bravely together. I am extremely proud of their professionalism and bravery." A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the movement was behind the attack. He claimed that dozens of Afghan soldiers and police were killed along with Western troops. The province's deputy police chief Mohammad Farooq said the fate of an entire 90-strong police force in the Kamdesh district was unknown. NATO said its troops had inflicted heavy casualties on the attackers, but did not say how many. NEW STRATEGY The NATO statement said "coalition forces' previously announced plans to depart the area as part of a broader realignment to protect larger populations remains unchanged." The attack was the deadliest for U.S. forces since nine were killed in a July 2008 battle in nearby Kunar province, which the U.S. military is investigating as a debacle that will teach its forces how to understand the demands of combat in Afghanistan. U.S. forces have suffered some of their worst casualties in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, where they have been trying to control remote passes used by Taliban fighters as infiltration routes from Pakistan. Under McChrystal's new counter-insurgency strategy they are supposed to move into more heavily populated areas to protect the population and reduce the influence of insurgents, while abandoning efforts to defend remote locations. The war in Afghanistan has reached its most violent phase this year, eight years after the Taliban were ousted, with attacks by fighters spreading from traditional strongholds in the south and east to once-peaceful western and northern regions. McChrystal, who now commands more than 100,000 troops, two thirds of them American, has requested tens of thousands more to implement his new strategy, warning that without them, the eight-year-old war will probably be lost. U.S. President Barack Obama, who already ordered 21,000 extra troops to Afghanistan this year, is re-evaluating his overall strategy for the region before considering whether to send more troops. Some in his administration are advocating the opposite strategy -- reducing force levels and switching to a counter-terrorism strategy limited to strikes on bases of al Qaeda fighters blamed for attacks on the West. Please don't tell me we don't already pummell every base we can find. |
| Posted by:gorb |
| #6 Stay or withdraw - but this village and mosque militia should be hunted and killed, the village destroyed and the earth salted. The fackers are 8th century barbarians, speak to them in their own language, pain, blood and death. |
| Posted by: Rob06 2009-10-04 20:29 |
| #5 Withdraw now, or commit the forces required for victory. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2009-10-04 14:01 |
| #4 In a guerrilla war if it looks like the good guys will withdraw locals begin to think that they better get some "resistance" credentials before it is too late. On November 4, America gave a gaint sign she would withdraw. |
| Posted by: JFM 2009-10-04 13:14 |
| #3 How about mine all the passes to Pakiwakiland? |
| Posted by: 3dc 2009-10-04 12:08 |
| #2 The village and mosque the militia came from, do they still exist? |
| Posted by: Bill 2009-10-04 11:15 |
| #1 Militia from a local mosque and a nearby village launched the attacks Not exactly a profoundly new or unique strategy. Begs more than a few questions. |
| Posted by: Besoeker in Duitsland 2009-10-04 06:12 |