9 American troops killed in Afghanistan in one attack.

9 American troops killed in Afghanistan in one attack.

news.yahoo.com

KABUL, Afghanistan - A multi-pronged militant assault on a small, remote U.S. base killed nine American soldiers and wounded 15 Sunday in the deadliest attack on U.S. forces in Afghanistan in three years, officials said.

The attack on the U.S. outpost came the same day a suicide bomber targeting a police patrol killed 24 people, while U.S. coalition and Afghan soldiers killed 40 militants elsewhere in the south.

The militant assault on the American troops began around 4:30 a.m. in a dangerous region close to the Pakistan border and lasted throughout the day.

Militants fired machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars from homes and a mosque in the village of Wanat in the mountainous northeastern province of Kunar, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement.

Nine U.S. troops were killed in the attack, a Western official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the troops' nationalities.

(visit the link for the full news article)

RIP to those men. No doubt the Taliban has an easier time with their peace with Pakistan that cost these men their lives. An increase in attacks Afghanistan since Pakistan made their peace in return for keeping that Taliban would not attack Pakistan. Course they already violated that truce by attacking Pakistani police. I can imagine the U.S. will do something about this event to deal with Pakistan's truce with the Taliban. I know for certain that the U.S. never made a truce with the Taliban and its supporters in that tribal area.

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Originally posted by deltaboy


RIP to those men. No doubt the Taliban has an easier time with their peace with Pakistan that cost these men their lives. An increase in attacks Afghanistan since Pakistan made their peace in return for keeping that Taliban would not attack Pakistan. Course they already violated that truce by attacking Pakistani police. I can imagine the U.S. will do something about this event to deal with Pakistan's truce with the Taliban. I know for certain that the U.S. never made a truce with the Taliban and its supporters in that tribal area.

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I think Pakistan is better off dealing with he Taliban peacefully than turning their own country into a hell hole which we have seen in past 2 years.Pakistan has done its best and paid a big price with thousands dead and a great leader assasinated.Why does US expect Pakistan to commit suicide for the safety of American people?Russia lost 15-20,000 fighting the hill billys.US is in far better position than them.

[edit on 13-7-2008 by Attari]

reply to post by Attari


Then I guess the Talibans' actions in Pakistan has indeed worked after all. Let us use your country to commit terrorist attacks on another country and we leave you alone. Indeed perhaps we should do the same for Pakistan if the Taliban can do, we can do it against Pakistan.

Im a little confused?


So, Pakistan is makeing deals with the Tali-ban???

Isnt that a state sposering a terror group? I mean, Pakistan is a country, and they are making deals, and choosing WHERE the Taliban can atacck.

Doesnt this make Pakistan a supporter of Terrorist activities???

If the US is suposded to be all high and mighty, why are we friends with countris that appear to support terrorism...

It would seem to me that the Attackers were going for a kind of Dien Bien Phu kind of moment and on a smaller scale the Tet offensive. en.wikipedia.org...

This being the tactic of isolating outlaying vunerable locations and causing as much injury and death as to effect the American public at home, and force them to reconsider the conflict.

A clever tactic that could work.

reply to post by TKainZero


news.yahoo.com...;_ylt=Agf9Lsx.h2.D3173MUq3BRKROrgF

No doubt you're spot on right.

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - In early June, about 300 fighters from jihadist groups came together for a secret gathering here, in the same city that serves as headquarters to the Pakistani army.

The groups were launched long ago with the army's clandestine support to fight against India in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. But at the meeting, they agreed to resolve their differences and commit more fighters to another front instead: Afghanistan.

"The message was that the jihad in Kashmir is still continuing but it is not the most important right now. Afghanistan is the fighting ground, against the Americans there," said Toor Gul, a leader of the militant group Hezb-ul Mujahedeen. The groups included the al-Qaida-linked Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, banned by Pakistan and branded terrorists by the U.S., he said.

The U.S. military says militant attacks in eastern Afghanistan have increased 40 percent this year over 2007. And for two straight months, the death toll of foreign troops in Afghanistan has exceeded that of Iraq. On Sunday, nine U.S. soldiers were killed in an ambush in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province, the deadliest single attack for the U.S. since June 2005.


Wow they are in a meeting of a HQ of the Pakistani Army. Who would have thunk it?

9 American troops getting killed made the national headlines, but the holocaust in Iraq isn't in any of the papers. Strange.

Originally posted by deltaboy
reply to post by Attari

 

Then I guess the Talibans' actions in Pakistan has indeed worked after all. Let us use your country to commit terrorist attacks on another country and we leave you alone. Indeed perhaps we should do the same for Pakistan if the Taliban can do, we can do it against Pakistan.

Pakistan doesn't have a problem with the taliban,only US does.Pakistan doesn't need to fall into a full blown civil war giving the excuse for US to invade to secure the nukes that 'might' fall into terrorist hands.If Iran gets attacked,no doubt Pakistan will be next.But till that time its better for Pakistan to provide safety for its own people than to worry about US troops accross the border.

reply to post by Attari


If Pakistan does not have a problem with the Taliban on its soil, then they will have no problems with the U.S. bombing them on their soil since its not their problem. After all, as you said, the U.S. has a problem with the Taliban.

Originally posted by Peruvianmonk
This being the tactic of isolating outlaying vunerable locations and causing as much injury and death as to effect the American public at home, and force them to reconsider the conflict.

A clever tactic that could work.

The problem with that strategy (for their part) is that they end up losing a lot of guys doing so. Yes, they'll inflict casualties on our side, but the math doesn't work out long term.

That said, it's likely that Democrats will pussy out and see this as a "strategic defeat".

"The militants fired on the American outpost from homes and a mosque in the village of Wanat. The attack began around 4:30 a.m. and the fighting lasted much of the day."

Now, how come the militants using homes/mosques as fighting positions doesn't seem to get the libs here on ATS in an uproar???

Originally posted by deltaboy
reply to post by Attari

 

If Pakistan does not have a problem with the Taliban on its soil, then they will have no problems with the U.S. bombing them on their soil since its not their problem.

After all, as you said, the U.S. has a problem with the Taliban.

US should take care of taliban on Afghan soil first

Attacking Pakistan is a whole new ball game dude.This country actually has nukes,not 1 or 2 but more than 100 warheads.Even India hasn't made such a move with its army which is 10 times bigger and well equiped than Pakistan.

Originally posted by thetruth777
9 American troops getting killed made the national headlines, but the holocaust in Iraq isn't in any of the papers. Strange.

Funny thing is.... I have seen the slaying of the Kurds all over the television many of times. Everyone knows about the holocaust that happened in the 90's. Unless of course your speaking of Iraq now. When were you there?

On another note, the attacks in Iraq/Afghanistan are getting more and more organized. It was mentioned above, but isolating outposts and reigning chaos is a very good way to cause the most amounts of casualties. The Viet Menh did it in Vietnam and brought pretty much all French support to the war down. Often times they wont even push a attack forward. Prefering to pull back and attack other outposts.

[edit on 14-7-2008 by USMC-oorah]

True they will lose a fair few fighters. But it wouldn't appear their are a shortage of volunteers seeing the anger that the American/Europen occupation of Afghanistan is causing.

These insurgents/foreign fighters have no media or public opinion to placate so can lose as many as they deem neccesary. Where as the American and European public and media are very senseitive to casulties. If they continue to rise there WILL be calls stronger and stronger for a withdrawl.

These fighters know exactly what they are trying to do. The tactic has historic precedence in Vietnam for the Americans and French, Afghanistan again for the British during the great game.

reply to post by deltaboy


if the soviots couldnt handle the mujaheen when they were fighting them
what makes the US think they can handle the Tali-Ban which is basicaly an off shoot of the Mujahadeen (the fantic part since there were two groups one led by fanatics and another moderates)

these people live in caves and tunnels and know the terrain better then any SPY sat or survalance planes.

Garilla warfare.
they are small and mobile.

im no fan of the Taliban but the US has to know that they will get casulties in a country that they cant control 100%

Found this on the Stripes website. Those guys really put up a fight.

Here is the link:

www.stripes.com...

Everything was on fire. The trucks. The bazaar. The grass.

It looked surreal. It looked like a movie.

That was what Spc. Tyler Stafford remembered thinking as he stepped onto the medical evacuation helicopter. The 23-year-old soldier would have been loaded onto the bird, but the poncho that was hastily employed as his stretcher broke. His body speckled with grenade and RPG shrapnel, the Vicenza, Italy, infantryman walked the last few feet to the waiting Black Hawk.

That was Sunday morning in eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar province. At a forward operating base — maybe as big as a football field — established just a few days prior.

Outnumbered but not outgunned, a platoon-plus element of soldiers with 2nd Platoon, Company C, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne), 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team accompanied by Afghan soldiers engaged in a fistfight of a firefight.

After maybe two hours of intense combat, some of the soldiers’ guns seized up because they expelled so many rounds so quickly. Insurgent bullets and dozens of rocket-propelled grenades filled the air. So many RPGs were fired at the soldiers that they wondered how the insurgents had so many.

That was July 13. That was when Stafford was blown out of a fighting position by an RPG, survived a grenade blast and had the tail of an RPG strike his helmet.

That was the day nine Chosen Company soldiers died.

It was just days before the unit was scheduled to leave the base.

———

The first RPG and machine gun fire came at dawn, strategically striking the forward operating base’s mortar pit. The insurgents next sighted their RPGs on the tow truck inside the combat outpost, taking it out. That was around 4:30 a.m.

This was not a haphazard attack. The reportedly 200 insurgents fought from several positions. They aimed to overrun the new base. The U.S. soldiers knew it and fought like hell. They knew their lives were on the line.

"I just hope these guys’ wives and their children understand how courageous their husbands and dads were," said Sgt. Jacob Walker. "They fought like warriors."

The next target was the FOB’s observation post, where nine soldiers were positioned on a tiny hill about 50 to 75 meters from the base. Of those nine, five died, and at least three others — Stafford among them — were wounded.

When the attack began, Stafford grabbed his M-240 machine gun off a north-facing sandbag wall and moved it to an east-facing sandbag wall. Moments later, RPGs struck the north-facing wall, knocking Stafford out of the fighting position and wounding another soldier.

Stafford thought he was on fire so he rolled around, regaining his senses. Nearby, Cpl. Gunnar Zwilling, who later died in the fight, had a stunned look on his face.

Immediately, a grenade exploded by Stafford, blowing him down to a lower terrace at the observation post and knocking his helmet off. Stafford put his helmet back on and noticed how badly he was bleeding.

Cpl. Matthew Phillips was close by, so Stafford called to him for help. Phillips was preparing to throw a grenade and shot a look at Stafford that said, "Give me a second. I gotta go kill these guys first."

This was only about 30 to 60 seconds into the attack.

Kneeling behind a sandbag wall, Phillips pulled the grenade pin, but just after he threw it an RPG exploded at his position. The tail of the RPG smacked Stafford’s helmet. The dust cleared. Phillips was slumped over, his chest on his knees and his hands by his side. Stafford called out to his buddy three or four times, but Phillips never answered or moved.

"When I saw Phillips die, I looked down and was bleeding pretty good, that’s probably the most scared I was at any point," Stafford said. "Then I kinda had to calm myself down and be like, ‘All right, I gotta go try to do my job.’ "

The soldier from Parker, Colo., loaded his 9 mm handgun, crawled up to their fighting position, stuck the pistol over the sandbags and fired.

Stafford saw Zwilling’s M-4 rifle nearby so he loaded it, put it on top of the sandbag and fired. Another couple RPGs struck the sandbag wall Stafford used as cover. Shrapnel pierced his hands.

Stafford low-crawled to another fighting position where Cpl. Jason Bogar, Sgt. Matthew Gobble and Sgt. Ryan Pitts were located. Stafford told Pitts that the insurgents were within grenade-tossing range. That got Pitts’ attention.

With blood running down his face, Pitts threw a grenade and then crawled to the position from where Stafford had just come. Pitts started hucking more grenades.

The firefight intensified. Bullets cut down tree limbs that fell on the soldiers. RPGs constantly exploded.

Back at Stafford’s position, so many bullets were coming in that the soldiers could not poke their heads over their sandbag wall. Bogar stuck an M-249 machine gun above the wall and squeezed off rounds to keep fire on the insurgents. In about five minutes, Bogar fired about 600 rounds, causing the M-249 to seize up from heat.

At another spot on the observation post, Cpl. Jonathan Ayers laid down continuous fire from an M-240 machine gun, despite drawing small-arms and RPG fire from the enemy. Ayers kept firing until he was shot and killed. Cpl. Pruitt Rainey radioed the FOB with a casualty report, calling for help. Of the nine soldiers at the observation post, Ayers and Phillips were dead, Zwilling was unaccounted for, and three were wounded. Additionally, several of the soldiers’ machine guns couldn’t fire because of damage. And they needed more ammo.

Rainey, Bogar and another soldier jumped out of their fighting position with the third soldier of the group launching a shoulder-fired missile.

All this happened within the first 20 minutes of the fight.

Platoon leader 1st Lt. Jonathan Brostrom and Cpl. Jason Hovater arrived at the observation post to reinforce the soldiers. By that time, the insurgents had breached the perimeter of the observation post. Gunfire rang out, and Rainey shouted, "He’s right behind the sandbag."

Brostrom could be heard shouting about the insurgent as well.

More gunfire and grenade explosions ensued. Back in the fighting position, Gobble fired a few quick rounds. Gobble then looked to where the soldiers were fighting and told Stafford the soldiers were dead. Of the nine soldiers who died in the battle, at least seven fell in fighting at the observation post.

The insurgents then started chucking rocks at Gobble and Stafford’s fighting position, hoping that the soldiers might think the rocks were grenades, causing them to jump from the safety of their fighting hole. One rock hit a tree behind Stafford and landed directly between his legs. He braced himself for an explosion. He then realized it was a rock.

Stafford didn’t have a weapon, and Gobble was low on ammo. Gobble told Stafford they had to get back to the FOB. They didn’t realize that Pitts was still alive in another fighting position at the observation post. Gobble and Stafford crawled out of their fighting hole. Gobble looked again to where the soldiers had been fighting and reconfirmed to Stafford that Brostrom, Rainey, Bogar and others were dead.

Gobble and Stafford low-crawled and ran back to the FOB. Coming into the FOB, Stafford was asked by a sergeant what was going on at the observation post. Stafford told him all the soldiers there were dead. Stafford lay against a wall, and his fellow soldiers put a tourniquet on him.

From the OP, Pitts got on the radio and told his comrades he was alone. At least three soldiers went to the OP to rescue Pitts, but they suffered wounds after encountering RPG and small-arms fire.

At that time, air support arrived in the form of Apache helicopters, A-10s and F-15s, performing bombing and strafing runs.

When the attack began, Walker was on the FOB. He grabbed an M-249 and started shooting toward a mountain spur where he could see some muzzle flashes. Walker put down 600 to 800 rounds of ammunition.

He got down behind the wall he was shooting from to load more ammo and was told they were taking fire from the southwest. He threw the bipod legs of his machine gun on the hood of a nearby Humvee. A 7.62-millimeter caliber bullet struck Walker’s left wrist, knocking him to the ground. A soldier applied a tourniquet to Walker and bandaged him.

Walker and two other wounded soldiers distributed their ammo and grenades and passed messages.

The whole FOB was covered in dust and smoke, looking like something out of an old Western movie.

"I’ve never seen the enemy do anything like that," said Walker, who was medically evacuated off the FOB in one of the first helicopters to arrive. "It’s usually three RPGs, some sporadic fire and then they’re gone … I don’t where they got all those RPGs. That was crazy."

Two hours after the first shots were fired, Stafford made his way — with help — to the medevac helicopter that arrived.

"It was some of the bravest stuff I’ve ever seen in my life, and I will never see it again because those guys," Stafford said, then paused. "Normal humans wouldn’t do that. You’re not supposed to do that — getting up and firing back when everything around you is popping and whizzing and trees, branches coming down and sandbags exploding and RPGs coming in over your head … It was a fistfight then, and those guys held ’ em off."

Stafford offered a guess as to why his fellow soldiers fought so hard.

"Just hardcoreness I guess," he said. "Just guys kicking ass, basically. Just making sure that we look scary enough that you don’t want to come in and try to get us."

Our Pakistani "allies" aren't interested in going after the Taliban - their ISI created the Taliban... (as well as wiring $100k to Mohammad Atta on September 10, 2001, see General Mahmud Ahmed).

Of course the "911 truth movement" has largely ignored this, shady generals being not as exciting to read about as holographic airplanes and invisible demolition operations, but I digress...

The government of Pakistan, like any government, has it's many factions.

While some may sincerely value the alliance with the US, some (especially in the ISI) consider the US an enemy, and the Taliban an ally.

[edit on 7/20/08 by xmotex]

In all honesty, war sucks.

One thing that should not surprise anyone when joining an army, and that is you are payed to do a job that can and may kill you (as well as killing other humans). War is designed to eliminate as many of the opposition as possible and for you to kill as many as possible.

I always thought a soldier would find it the best way to die on the battlefield and considered a great honor?

ANY human life lost due to war really saddens me. But it is not unexpected.

Z

deleted post.
starting new thread.

ran a search on 9 american troops and this 3 year old reply came up. Im starting a new thread for a more recent event. Mods delete this.