NATO's Deadliest Days In Afghanistan

[H2O3C4Nitrogen]

NATO: 3 more troops killed in Afghan bomb blast

By ROBERT KENNEDY
The Associated Press
Thursday, October 14, 2010; 1:00 AM

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A bomb blast killed three NATO troops in western Afghanistan on Thursday, a day after six service members died in a spate of attacks by insurgents in the east and south.

An improvised explosive device killed the three service members Thursday, an alliance statement said, without providing nationalities or giving a specific location where the incident occurred.

In a bloody day for NATO troops in Afghanistan on Wednesday, insurgents killed six service members, including four who died in a single bomb blast in the volatile south of the country.

One service member was killed in the east in an insurgent attack and another died in the south in a separate roadside bombing - the weapon of choice for militants in countering a large-scale NATO-Afghan operation in the region.

2010 has been the deadliest year for international troops in the nine-year Afghan conflict. At least 37 NATO service members have been killed so far this month. More than 2,000 have died since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

Troop numbers have been ramped up in the past year to turn the screws on the insurgents. Fighting has intensified and casualties have mounted. The escalating toll has shaken the commitment of many NATO countries, with calls growing to start drawing down troops quickly.

The nearly 150,000 international troops and 220,000 Afghan government security forces - whose recruitment and training has been put on a fast track - are still struggling to gain the upper hand against an estimated 30,000 insurgents.

washingtonpost.com

 

[GUNNER]

KABUL, Oct 14, 2010 (AFP) - Four NATO soldiers were killed in two separate bomb attacks in Afghanistan on Thursday, the alliance announced, bringing to 585 the total number of personnel killed so far this year.

The US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said three soldiers died in a single attack in western Afghanistan while the fourth trooper died in a bomb blast in the country's east.

The force released no further details and does not disclose the nationalities of soldiers killed as a matter of policy.

There are American, Spanish, Italian and Lithuanian troops based in NATO contingents in the west.

The Taliban insurgency against US-led NATO troops and the Afghan government is now in its deadliest year, having expanded steadily since the 2001 US-led invasion brought down their regime.

Six US soldiers were killed in attacks on Wednesday and four Italian soldiers in a single bombing in western Afghanistan last week.

Thursday's deaths brought to 585 the number of foreign soldiers killed this year, eclipsing the previous record of 521 in 2009. The AFP tally is based on a count by the independent website icasualties.org.

Italy on Wednesday became the latest NATO ally to detail plans to scale down its military presence and hand over territory to Afghan security forces by the end of next year.

Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa said his government planned to hand over control of large parts of western Afghanistan to local authorities by the end of 2011, leaving only a mission to train the Afghan police and army.

Italy is the fifth largest contributor of foreign troops in Afghanistan, with a deployment of around 3,400. That number is expected to rise to around 4,000 by the end of this year, before the planned drawdown.

Canada, which is the sixth largest contributor of troops, has already said it intends to pull its estimated 2,830 troops out of the south in 2011.

 

[Maghrebi]

2 US-led soldiers killed in Afghanistan
Fri Oct 15, 2010 10:0AM

Two more US-led soldiers have lost their lives in southern and eastern Afghanistan, NATO says.

The nationality of the soldiers or the exact location where they were killed have not been disclosed yet.

This year has been the deadliest for the western military alliance in Afghanistan with over 580 fatalities reported so far.

Western public opinion is growing increasingly tired of the war. Deaths of civilians in NATO and the US unauthorized attacks have also fueled tensions between Afghanistan and Western countries.

HJ/MGH

 

[GUNNER]

KABUL, Oct 19, 2010 - Two NATO soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the military said, bringing to 595 the number of foreign troops to die in the Afghan conflict so far this year.

NATO did not release the nationalities of the soldiers, announcing separately that one was killed in "an insurgent attack" and the second in an "improvised explosive device (IED) explosion".

This year's toll is the worst on record and compares to 521 in 2009, according to an AFP tally based on the independent icasualties.org website.

 

[GUNNER]

Foreign Troop Death Toll In Afghanistan Hits 600 This Year

KABUL, Oct 25, 2010 - The number of foreign troops to die this year in Afghanistan has reached 600, by far the highest annual toll in nine years of war despite tentative reconciliation efforts with the Taliban.

The milestone was reached after a NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) announcement that a soldier had been killed in an insurgent attack in the east on Sunday.

Another NATO soldier was killed in a bomb blast in the Taliban heartland of southern Afghanistan on the same day.

The toll of 600, according to an AFP tally based on a count kept by the icasualties.org website, compares to 521 killed in all of 2009 in what was previously the deadliest year on record for the forces in Afghanistan.

On average, two soldiers die each day. A total of 2,170 foreign soldiers have been killed since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan which overthrew the hardline Islamist Taliban regime.

A Taliban-led insurgency has since strengthened each year, but it is most intense in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand.

At least 1,348 American troops are among the dead, and the US military provides two-thirds of the 150,000-strong international force in Afghanistan.

The US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan said an increasing number of Taliban leaders are showing interest in talks with the US-backed government in Kabul as pressure mounts from the intensifying NATO military campaign.

"What we've got here is an increasing number of Taliban at high levels saying, 'Hey, we want to talk,'" Richard Holbrooke told CNN in an interview.

"We think this is a result in large part of the growing pressure they're under from General (David) Petraeus and the ISAF command."

But he cautioned that the feelers so far add up to "contacts and discussions" rather than peace negotiations to end the war.

 

[TaimiKhan]

How things are going, it seems it will be crossing the 700 mark before year end.

 

[Muhammad-Bin-Qasim]

As I said... Americans listen to no one and suffer because of this... I have written to numerous opinion makers in America and in newspapers to get their troops out of Afghanistan asap but it seems like I would rather be talking to a wall by myself...

 

[GUNNER]

KABUL, Nov 10, 2010 (AFP) - Three foreign soldiers have been killed in southern Afghanistan, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in separate statements on Wednesday.

One soldier was killed in an insurgent attack on Wednesday while the second died as a result of an improvised explosive device on Tuesday. Both happened in the militant-hit south of the country.

The third soldier was killed in an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday.

No further details were released in line with ISAF policy.

The deaths bring to 633 the number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan so far this year, according to an AFP count based on the independent icasualties.org web site, which tracks coalition fatalities.

NATO and the United States have more than 150,000 troops deployed to Afghanistan to fight the insurgency, led by Taliban militants who have stretched their presence to most parts of the country.

 

[LeGenD]

The sad thing is that Pakistani forces have suffered even more casualties.

We need to throw Americans out of Afghanistan and end this bloody war ASAP.

 

[GUNNER]

By Claire Truscott

KABUL, Nov 29, 2010 (AFP) - A man in police uniform killed six NATO troops during a training session in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, the latest in a series of similar shootings announced by the US-led military.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the gunman was also killed, but gave no further details and said an Afghan-ISAF investigation had been opened.

"An individual in an Afghan border police uniform turned his weapon against International Security Assistance Forces during a training mission today, killing six servicemembers in eastern Afghanistan," the short statement said.

A US defence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the six troops were Americans but declined to give further details.

The deaths brings the number coalition troop deaths this year to 668, according to an AFP tally based on that tracked by the independent icasualties.org website, the highest annual toll since the US-led invasion in late 2001.

Last year 521 NATO soldiers died.

The Afghan commander of border police in the east, General Aminullah Amarkhail, said the incident took place in the Pachir Agam district of Kunar province, where there is a large police training facility.

"I've sent investigating teams to the area. I can't say anything more before the investigations are over," he told AFP.

The United States is bankrolling a massive programme -- 9.2 billion dollars in fiscal 2010 -- to build Afghanistan's army and police so they can take over responsibility for security by 2014, as pledged by NATO in Lisbon a week ago.

But the programme has been troubled by a series of shootings, either by insurgents dressed in Afghan security uniforms or rogue officers.

This month, NATO said it was investigating whether an Afghan soldier killed two coalition troops on a military base in the volatile town of Sangin in southern Helmand province.

In July, an Afghan soldier killed two American contractors inside a military base in north Afghanistan.

A week later, another Afghan solider killed three British Gurkha soldiers.

In 2009, five British soldiers were killed by an Afghan policeman.

There are currently about 80,000 police officers and US and NATO forces hope to bring that number up to 134,000 by October next year, alongside the 170,000 personnel planned for the army by the same date.

 

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Foreign Troop Deaths In Afghanistan Top 700 In 2010

KABUL, Dec 21, 2010 (AFP) - International troop deaths in Afghanistan have passed 700 this year, according to figures released Tuesday by the independent iCasualties.org website.

The total figure now stands at 701, the highest annual number yet in the nine-year battle against the Taliban insurgency and around a third higher than last year.

The bulk of the dead -- 493 -- are US troops, followed by Britons at 101, the website said.

The bloody milestone comes days after US President Barack Obama announced details of a review into his strategy in Afghanistan, a year after ordering an extra 30,000 American troops for the war.

The total international troop death toll last year stood at 521 while for 2008, the number was 295, according to iCasualties.

 

[gambit]

NATO: 25 Afghan insurgents killed in the east - Yahoo! News

KABUL, Afghanistan – NATO says more than 25 suspected insurgents have been killed in a coalition airstrike in eastern Afghanistan.

The coalition says a NATO force called for air support after coming under threat from insurgents on Saturday in the Nari district of Kunar province. That has been the scene of heavy fighting along the Pakistani border.

The coalition says another coalition patrol in the same province came under fire Saturday from small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. It says coalition forces returned fire, killing an unspecified number of insurgents in the Dara Pech district.

 

[TaimiKhan]

NATO: 25 Afghan insurgents killed in the east - Yahoo! News

KABUL, Afghanistan – NATO says more than 25 suspected insurgents have been killed in a coalition airstrike in eastern Afghanistan.

The coalition says a NATO force called for air support after coming under threat from insurgents on Saturday in the Nari district of Kunar province. That has been the scene of heavy fighting along the Pakistani border.

The coalition says another coalition patrol in the same province came under fire Saturday from small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. It says coalition forces returned fire, killing an unspecified number of insurgents in the Dara Pech district.

Hope, tomorrow they don't say that the 25 killed insurgents came out to be locals who were going to a wedding or were bombed when they were in a wedding.

 

[lapinschous1]

French soldier killed in Afghanistan

Afghanistan – Death of a French officer – Communiqué issued by the Presidency of the Republic

Paris, 17 December 2010

President Sarkozy was very shocked to learn of the death, this morning, of a French officer from the Saint Christol d’Albion 2nd Foreign Engineers Regiment during an operation in the Alasay Valley. He came under fire from insurgents while carrying out an area reconnaissance mission.

This soldier paid with his life for the commitment of France, alongside her allies, to help bring peace and security to the Afghan people.

President Sarkozy expresses his most sincere condolences to the bereaved and shares their pain.

The Head of State reaffirms his support for the Afghan people and authorities. He expresses France’s determination to work within the International Security Assistance Force. This UN-mandated force has been assigned the mission of contributing to the re-establishment of stability and the restoration of peace, and to development in Afghanistan./.

one more link :

 

[gambit]

Hope, tomorrow they don't say that the 25 killed insurgents came out to be locals who were going to a wedding or were bombed when they were in a wedding.

I guess that is the advantage al-Qaeda and Taliban combatants have over uniformed soldiers, that they can be anything at any time and anywhere.