Heavy US troop losses in insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan

[IndianaGreen]

Heavy US troop losses in insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan

By Barry Grey
5 October 2009

The United States military suffered its worst single-engagement losses in more than a year and one of the worst in the eight-year-old war in Afghanistan on Saturday, when several hundred insurgents attacked a remote outpost in northeastern Afghanistan, killing eight American soldiers.

The attack began at daybreak and lasted for several hours. The target was an Afghan police station at the foot of a hill and a US outpost further up the hill, located in the Kamdish district of Nuristan province, about 20 miles from the Pakistan border.

In addition to the US deaths, two Afghan police were killed and, according to the local governor, 11 police were captured, including the district police chief. A local Taliban commander claimed responsibility for the attack.

Also on Saturday, two US troops were killed in central Wardak province when an Afghan policeman on a joint patrol opened fired on the Americans and fled. Three US soldiers were killed on Friday, bringing the three-day US death toll to at least 13.

The US troops in Nuristan province were scheduled to evacuate the outpost as part of a shift in military strategy to move forces from remote border areas controlled by the Taliban and other insurgents to more populated centers. Ironically, Saturday’s attack coincided with the publication on Saturday and Sunday of front-page articles in the New York Times and Washington Post detailing a similar debacle for the US in July of 2008 at a remote US outpost in the nearby village of Wanat.

Nine US soldiers were killed in that attack, which has been described as the “Black Hawk Down” of Afghanistan. Gen. David Petraeus, the head of the US Central Command, recently ordered a new investigation of the Wanat incident.

The deaths over the weekend brought the total number of US and NATO troops killed in Afghanistan this year to 399, and for the war as a whole to 1,444. Insurgents have killed over 200 occupation troops in the past three months alone, reflecting the deteriorating military and security situation for the occupation forces. The casualty rate for US forces is approaching that which prevailed during the worst of the fighting in Iraq in 2006 and 2007.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/oct2009/afgh-o05.shtml

[ixion]

1. Yeah, I'm sure glad Obama chose the 'surge'

:eyes: :(