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NATO's Deadliest Days In Afghanistan

KABUL, July 19, 2010 (AFP) - Two US soldiers and six Afghan policemen were killed Monday in a string of Taliban-style bomb attacks in volatile southern Afghanistan on the eve of a major international conference, officials said.

The US soldiers operating under NATO's International Security Assistance Force were killed in separate bomb attacks, ISAF said.

It did not give details of the attacks. An ISAF spokeswoman confirmed their nationalities.

Bombs known as improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are the weapon of choice for Taliban and other insurgents fighting Western and Afghan forces in an insurgency now almost nine years old.

The deaths bring to 380 the number of foreign soldiers to die in the Afghan war so far this year, according to an AFP tally. Last year 520 lost their lives fighting the insurgency.
 
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2 US soldiers among 8 killed in Afghan attacks

* Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi claims responsibility

KABUL: Two US soldiers and six Afghan policemen were killed on Monday in a string of Taliban-style bomb attacks in volatile southern Afghanistan on the eve of a major international conference, officials said.

The US soldiers operating under NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) were killed in separate bomb attacks, ISAF said.

It did not give details of the attacks. An ISAF spokeswoman confirmed their nationalities.

Bombs known as improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are the weapon of choice for Taliban and other insurgents fighting Western and Afghan forces.

The deaths bring to 380 the number of foreign soldiers to die in the Afghan war so far this year, according to an AFP tally.

Six Afghan police officers were killed and four wounded when another roadside bomb ripped through their vehicle in the Khakraiz district of Kandahar province, the Taliban’s southern heartland, an official said.

The officers had been on patrol, said Abdul Qayoum, the district governor.

Claim: Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call from an undisclosed location.

The latest violence comes as the Afghan government prepares to host a major conference on Tuesday in Kabul, where President Hamid Karzai is expected to announce a deadline of 2014 for domestic forces to take over national security.

NATO and the US have 143,000 troops in Afghanistan, set to peak at 150,000 in coming weeks as they take a US-led counter-insurgency to the insurgents’ southern strongholds in an effort to speed up an end to the war. afp

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
 
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US platoon suffers heavy losses in lush Afghan fields

A walled graveyard to the west provides Taliban with a safe firing haven against American automatic grenade guns pointed at them and US helicopter gunships that prowl the skies at night in protective overwatch missions. We call that ‘death valley’ and there’s not much we can do about it

OUTPOST NOLEN: The soldiers call it ‘the witching hour’, the time when the fierce Afghan heat has mellowed enough for Taliban to sneak into a nearby graveyard and unleash a torrent of rocket grenades, mortar and rifle fire.

Combat Outpost Nolen, a small mud-walled school in the middle of grape and pomegranate fields providing perfect insurgent cover, has experienced some of the fiercest fighting in Arghandab district, a key Taliban insurgency route on the way to Kandahar city.

Just three weeks after arriving, an American platoon belonging to the 101st Airborne Division - shock troops of the US military - is withdrawing from the valley, their numbers cut in half by horrific war injuries.

‘Out there the enemy owns the terrain. It’s hard to see him with the foliage. Many of our guys compare it to what they’ve seen in Vietnam, except for the jungle canopy’, First Platoon commander Lt. Norman Black, 36, told.

A soldier from a separate unit was shot in the head here at long range a few weeks ago as he stood guard mid-morning in watchtowers since covered in camouflage netting.

Black’s platoon started the mission with 17 men including the medic, and now they’re down to 10. A small courtyard in the base is scarred with rocket grenade impact craters near the only well, while fly wire on school rooms is ripped by shrapnel. RPGs thump into the thick walls at night.

The area around COP Nolen has been heavily seeded with hidden bombs, forcing soldiers to use varying routes through fields and climbing over high walls in combat gear to avoid IEDs and ambushes. But they are near impossible to avoid.

Troops try to walk in each other’s footsteps in narrow trenches of overgrown vine, weeds and mud that are swelteringly humid and make IEDs invisible, as well as concentrate their effect when they detonate.

In a July 4 Independence Day prelude, shrapnel tore into Sgt. Matthew Kendall’s arm and face as he walked beside a soldier from another unit on a handover mission to learn about dangers in the area.

Eight days later, on July 12, Specialist Kevin Gatson lost a leg and three fingers on his left hand to a bomb, while Black blew out an eardrum.

Staff Sgt. Kyle Malin stepped on another IED and lost both legs while on his way to aid Gatson as part of a quick reaction force. Within 45 minutes, PFC Corey Kent stepped on a third bomb and lost both legs and part of his left hand.

Staff Sgt. Avionne Reese’s incredible luck ran out on July 19 when he walked into the third IED of his short deployment. This one sent bomb fragments into the right side of his body, while Specialist Pedro Torres was badly wounded in the same blast.

In three weeks of fighting the platoon has been recommend for 10 purple hearts and a Bronze Star for valour for a soldier who helped a comrade to safety over a field of IEDs.

“It’s very thick orchards, grape fields where you can only go down the edges of the fields because you can’t really jump every different level of the vines. And then the open fields, they set up and wait for you as an ambush,” said Black.

Outpost Nolen was set up near Charqulba village, now deserted and was supposed to be a base for patrolling in the area. The village now provides a killing field for insurgents.

A walled graveyard to the west provides Taliban with a safe firing haven against American automatic grenade guns pointed at them and US helicopter gunships that prowl the skies at night in protective overwatch missions. ‘We call that ‘death valley’ and there’s not much we can do about it,” said combat medic Private First Class Scott Donahue.”

Black said his platoon was part of an artillery unit recast into infantry, but its manpower was only around two-thirds of a regular infantry unit. “As we’ve been taking casualties, we’ve not been able to push out, and they’ve been coming in closer,” he said. “It’s been tough going for us.” reuters

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
 
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atleast something happening there, sooner or later they have to take their c*nts out of occupied lands, but beware these yankees are good in fabricating and lying about the facts of anything.
and we all know how well they use fear of WMD to distroy Iraq and looted its resources and 9 11 to invade Afghanistan.... wonder what they gona do with such a huge number of enemies they have made since....

oh one more thing to share I watched two good moives recently and recommend you too 'unthinkable' and 'green zone'
 
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atleast something happening there, sooner or later they have to take their c*nts out of occupied lands, but beware these yankees are good in fabricating and lying about the facts of anything.
and we all know how well they use fear of WMD to distroy Iraq and looted its resources and 9 11 to invade Afghanistan.... wonder what they gona do with such a huge number of enemies they have made since....

oh one more thing to share I just saw two good moives recently that i suggest you must watch 'unthinkable' and 'green zone'

i am no fan of americans, but can you tell me how they looted iraqi resources?
 
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i am no fan of americans, but can you tell me how they looted iraqi resources?

LoL! i can understand what you have just said, but sorry i dont wana waste my time on deaf ears. Better stop obeying the Masters (believing on whatever they say) and open your eyes, mind and ears and search for yourself, cheers
 
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LoL! i can understand what you have just said, but sorry i dont wana waste my time on deaf ears. Better stop obeying the Masters (believing on whatever they say) and open your eyes, mind and ears and search for yourself, cheers

what deaf ears? what masters? what obeying? what eyes and mind? sorry i dont search anyting. you said they are loothing the iraqi's resources, you need to back it with an evidence. if that is true then we condemn it, otherwise it not nice to spread something that is not true.
 
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what deaf ears? what masters? what obeying? what eyes and mind? sorry i dont search anyting. you said they are loothing the iraqi's resources, you need to back it with an evidence. if that is true then we condemn it, otherwise it not nice to spread something that is not true.

yeah you righto buddy I cannot give you evidences like what yankees shown to whole world about Iraqi's WDMs. and I suggest you stop being an ostrich, facts are quite different to what we see on tele 24/7 since 9 11, though there are people who dare to speak truth and stand against illegal occupants and looters... dont be naive, search online and be honest to yourself. cheers
 
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NATO's Deadliest Days In Afghanistan



KABUL, June 21, 2010 (AFP) - Nine NATO soldiers were killed in Afghanistan on Monday, the latest in a series of grim days that has made June one of the deadliest months for the alliance.

Below is a chronology of some of the deadliest days of the war since the US-led ouster of the Taliban regime in 2001.

According to an AFP tally, based on a count by the independent website icasualties.org, 281 foreign soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan this year. Last year was the deadliest yet, with 520 killed.

--2005--

- June 28: 16 US military personnel, including eight Navy Seals, die when a Taliban rocket-propelled grenade hits their Chinook helicopter in Kunar province, east of Kabul.

--2007--

- April 8: Six Canadian soldiers are killed when a bomb explodes near their vehicle in southern Afghanistan.

- May 31: Seven soldiers, five of them Americans, are killed when a military transport helicopter crashes in Helmand province after a rocket attack.

- July 4: Six Canadian soldiers and their Afghan interpreter are killed when a booby-trapped device hits their vehicle in the south.

- November 10: Six NATO soldiers and two Afghan troops are killed in a Taliban ambush in northeast Afghanistan.

--2008--

- July 13: Nine US soldiers are killed in clashes in Kunar province.

- August 18: Ten French soldiers are killed in a Taliban ambush about 50 kilometres from Kabul.

--2009--

- September 17: Six Italian soldiers are killed by a suicide bomb attack in Kabul.

- October 3: Eight US soldiers and two Afghan soldiers are killed in fierce fighting against hundreds of militants in the eastern province of Nuristan, which borders Pakistani tribal areas that are havens for Al-Qaeda and Taliban sympathisers.

- October 27: Eight US soldiers die in bomb attacks in the south.

--2010--

- January 11: Three US, two French and one British soldier are killed in fighting in the south and east.

- May 18: Eight NATO soldiers are killed, including six in a suicide attack on a NATO convoy in Kabul.

- June 6: A total of five NATO soldiers, four of them Americans, die in three incidents in southern and eastern Afghanistan.

- June 7: Seven US, two Australian and one French soldier are killed in bomb attacks in the south and the east.

- June 8: Two more NATO soldiers are killed in southern Afghanistan.

- June 18: Five more NATO troops die in three attacks, two in southern and one in eastern Afghanistan.

- June 21: Nine NATO soldiers are killed, among them three Australians and an American in a helicopter crash in the south and four more Americans and one other soldier in separate militant bomb and gun attacks in the south and east.

In addition, on December 30, 2009, seven Americans working for the CIA and a member of the Jordanian intelligence services were killed in a suicide attack by a member of Al-Qaeda at a US base in the southeastern province of Khost near the border with Pakistan.

The Western Media is always keeping track of how many Western soldiers died but they won't mention how many Afghans they killed.
 
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NATO's facing some really tough times against the Taliban huh? They need to check for any cross border covert support they're likely to receive. As such Taliban has killed enough innocent Afghans and Pakistanis.

How nice it'd be if Pakistan can seal of the entire Afghan border. That way it can keep a check on Taliban cross overs and still isolate the terrorists operating in their country.
 
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The Western Media is always keeping track of how many Western soldiers died but they won't mention how many Afghans they killed.

Human rights organizations very precisely track the events. Although the media dont focus on it as much as it should.
 
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yeah you righto buddy I cannot give you evidences like what yankees shown to whole world about Iraqi's WDMs. and I suggest you stop being an ostrich, facts are quite different to what we see on tele 24/7 since 9 11, though there are people who dare to speak truth and stand against illegal occupants and looters... dont be naive, search online and be honest to yourself. cheers

well, if you dont know what you are talking about then dont say anything. please dont mislead people. but if you know something, then do please share it with us.
 
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