Taliban Ambush

[tomahawk6]

Taliban were wiped out by XAS. ;D

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dc/2007/10/breaking_news_major_afghan_bat.html#more

October 27, 2007
BREAKING NEWS: MAJOR AFGHAN BATTLE ERUPTS

A major battle has been fought today in Afghanistan's Helmand Province, a mountainous region in the south that is sick with Taliban fighters and is often the scene of frequent fighting. Most extraordinary is that the U.S. military is claiming to have slaughtered at least 84 Taliban who ambushed a patrol of "coalition forces" - typically code for a Green Beret unit - and Afghan National Security Forces. ANSF are essentially Pashtun tribal militiamen who operate almost exclusively with U.S. Army Special Forces.

The Taliban ambushed a patrol from positions inside trenches, which required the U.S. to hit them with airstrikes using four GPS-guided JDAM bombs during the unusual six-hour fight.

While it's not at all unheard of for the U.S.-led coalition to wipe out large numbers of Taliban, it hasn't happened since last summer - and it's particularly rare during this time of the year, given the already cold weather.

- James Meek

Read the military's press release on the battle after the jump.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 19, 2007
RELEASE # 092

Afghan National Security, Coalition forces kill dozens of Taliban fighters in Helmand Province

BAGRAM, Afghanistan – Afghan National Security and Coalition forces killed a large number of Taliban fighters after being ambushed in the Musa Qaleh Wadi region of Helmand Province Oct. 27.

The combined force was conducting a reconnaissance patrol when Taliban fighters engaged them with rocket and small arms fire. The combined patrol immediately returned fire, maneuvered, and employed close air support resulting in almost seven dozen Taliban fighters killed during a six hour engagement. During the battle, the combined force exchanged small arms fire with the fleeing attackers, quickly putting them on the defensive.

The insurgents attacked from a trench line using small arms, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. The ANSF and Coalition forces fixed the enemy in their positions and four separate precision munition engagements killed over six dozen insurgents while trying to reinforce enemy positions.

“Afghan National Security and Coalition forces remain devoted to uprooting Taliban insurgents in the Musa Qaleh Wadi Region,” said Maj. Chris Belcher, Combined Joint Task Force- 82 spokesperson.

There were no reports of non-combatant injuries or damage to property.

 

[1feral1]

Notice the media used the word 'slaughtered'. I think 'killed' would suffice, as to be slaughtered means easy, almost if the TB was unarmed.

On my tour, the word neutralise was used, ha!

I have no time for the media.

Wes

 

[tomahawk6]

I guess "killed" isnt descriptive enough. ;D

 

[geo]

Oh well... regardless of the term used, 84 fewer bad guys out there

Yay team!

 

[1feral1]

Too right Geo, slaughtered, killed, neutralised, destroyed, or 'bought the farm', its that much less bads guys out there, but as quoted from a mate recently back from Afghanistan, 'you drop one, and five more pop up', ha!

Cold beers (its 31C here today),


Wes

 

[aesop081]

maybe...just maybe.....in order to explain it in words the anti-war / peacekeeping crowd likes/understands we refer to ennemy KIAs as having been....

"pacified"

;D

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

"peacekept"

 

[Hedgehog18]

no we were able to show them the light lol


*just dont explain what made the bright flashes lol

 

[armyvern]

"peacekept"

Peacekept??!!??

Holy crap over ...

How's this bit grab you (emphasis mine)?

A major battle has been fought today in Afghanistan's Helmand Province, a mountainous region in the south that is sick with Taliban fighters and is often the scene of frequent fighting.

The region is sick?? Is it thick with sick Taliban fighters?? Or just sick, or supposedly sick, but meaningly thick??

Where the heck is the editor -- or at least the proofreader for this guys crap?? I'd be firing his ass for this outstanding work of published 'blogging.'  : Can one fire the blogger? Fire the damn editor too while we are at it.

 

[vonGarvin]

IMHO, the use of the term "slaughtered" was intentional.  The term implied helplessness of the slaughtered, and a callousness of the slaughterer, no?  This Informations Operations by the media is brought to you by "nowar.ca".  After all, aren't we just occupying/pacifying them until we can build a pipeline?  :

 

[aesop081]

  This Informations Operations by the media is brought to you by "nowar.ca". 

Good thing we have an impartial and objective media in this country.....

 

[tomahawk6]

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2007/10/28/1056081-battles-near-taliban-held-town-intensify

KABUL — Days after Taliban fighters overran Musa Qala a U.S. commander pledged that Western troops would take it back. Nine months later, the town is still Taliban territory, a symbol of the West's struggles to control the poppy-growing south.

But a string of recent battles around Musa Qala, won overwhelmingly by American Special Forces, signal a renewed U.S. focus on the symbolic Taliban stronghold.

An Afghan army commander said Sunday that U.S. and Afghan forces have taken over the area around the town and that Afghan commanders are holding talks with Musa Qala's tribal leaders to persuade them to expel the Arab, Chechen and Uzbek foreign fighters who roam its streets alongside the Taliban militants.

U.S. Special Forces soldiers accompanied by Afghan troops killed about 80 fighters during a six-hour battle outside Musa Qala on Saturday, the latest in a series of increasingly deadly engagements in Helmand province — the world's largest poppy-growing region and the front line of Afghanistan's bloodiest fighting this year.

There have been at least five major battles in the area since Sept. 1, including Saturday's fighting, and Special Forces troops have killed more than 250 militants, according to coalition statements.

"Musa Qala is part of the overall concept here, denying the Taliban the ability to control northern Helmand," said Maj. Chris Belcher, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition. "Our goal is to stop them from accomplishing that ... We're in Musa Qala and we're going to stay there."

The vast majority of Western forces in Helmand are British, though U.S. Special Forces troops are also active in the province.

Taliban militants overran Musa Qala on Feb. 1, four months after British troops left the town following a contentious peace agreement that handed over security responsibilities to Afghan elders.

Days after the Taliban takeover a U.S. military spokesman, Col. Tom Collins, said NATO and Afghan forces would take back the town "at a time and place that is most advantageous."

Lt. Col. Richard Eaton, a spokesman for British troops in Helmand, said that "nothing in Afghanistan is ever straightforward."

"You can't do everything simultaneously. That is not how a counterinsurgency works," Eaton said. "As (the commander of NATO's forces in Afghanistan) has said, we will deal with Musa Qala at a time of our choosing."

Eaton also did not rule out the possibility of future peace talks in the town, saying that the solutions to insurgencies are political.

Brig. Gen. Ghulam Muhiddin Ghori, a top Afghan army commander in Helmand, said the foreign fighters are running training camps near Musa Qala to teach militants how to carry out suicide and roadside bomb attacks. But he said no big military operations are being launched to overtake the town itself because of a fear of civilian casualties.

"Afghan and coalition forces have surrounded the Musa Qala district center. We have started negotiations with tribal leaders there to take over Musa Qala from the Taliban," Ghori told The Associated Press. "The tribal leaders are also worried about these Taliban because the foreign fighters — Arabs, Chechens, Baluchs and Uzbeks — they are in Musa Qala."

Violence in Afghanistan this year has been the deadliest since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. More than 5,200 people have died this year due to the insurgency, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and Western officials.

The latest Musa Qala battle began Saturday when Taliban insurgents attacked a combined U.S. coalition and Afghan patrol with rockets and gunfire, prompting the combined force to call in attack aircraft, resulting in "almost seven dozen Taliban fighters killed," the U.S.-led coalition said.

The coalition said four bombs were dropped on a trench line filled with fighters, resulting in most of the deaths. It said there were no immediate reports of civilian casualties.

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. David Rodriguez, declined to talk about Musa Qala at a news conference in Kabul on Sunday. Speaking on a separate topic, he said it could take between 18 months and two years for Afghan units to be able to conduct major operations on their own.

Rodriguez said Afghan forces excel at small-unit tactics and coordinating with the Afghan people but still need to improve their command structure, the use of air power, their logistics support and medical capabilities.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force, meanwhile, said an investigation into allegations of civilian casualties in Wardak province on Oct. 22 found that no civilians had been killed. A provincial council member at the time said 12 civilians had been killed, but ISAF said the investigation found that the allegations were "without merit."

Separately, a suicide bomber blew himself up next to a taxi-stand in Lashkar Gah, Helmand's capital, killing one civilian and wounding six others, said provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal.

The bomber was also killed in the blast. Andiwal could not say who was the target of the attack or whether the explosives on the body of the bomber went off prematurely.

 

[Armymedic]

Anyone who thinks we (the CF we) are doing the heavy lifting needs to research into what the US Army SF A teams are doing with thier Afghan counterparts. These guys travel around in thier Hummer and Ford Explorers looking for a fight...

And on most days, they bring it hard.

Got to love those with more guts than........

 

[geo]

StMMT
???
We aren't there for the body count.
we don't ride out in hummers & pickups looking for a fight...We fight combined & coodrinated operations

I have the utmost respect for all the SF troops out there fighting alongside ours - be they Aussie, Brit, Dutch, Cdn or US
I just don't consider us as taking a backseat to them.