Ambush: Video Shows U.S. Troops Being Hunted, Killed (Afghanistan)

[sabra]

Source: ABC News Blotter

Dramatic new video shows how American soldiers in Afghanistan are being set up for deadly ambushes after trying to make peace with village elders in Taliban-controlled areas.

The effort to win the "hearts and minds" of village elders in the Korengal Valley of Kunar Province in Afghanistan has proved to be a dangerous one for U.S. troops, with elders often suspected of tipping Taliban fighters to the soldiers' schedule and whereabouts.

The video, to be broadcast tonight on ABC News' "World News With Charles Gibson" and "Nightline," was shot by journalists embedded with the 2nd Platoon, Battle (B) Company of the 173rd Airborne. The journalists, including author Sebastian Junger, were on assignment for "Vanity Fair" and ABC News.

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The new video shows the men of the 2nd Platoon of Battle Company twice walking into traps after leaving meetings with village elders, one called to discuss details of a U.S.-financed water pipe project.

"We went from being the hunters to the hunted," said photographer Tim Hetherington who was with the troops when they were attacked last month.

Read more: http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/11/ambush-video-sh.html