U.S. Coalition, Afghans Kill 12 Insurgents

[maddezmom]

KABUL, Afghanistan - Fighting between insurgents and U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces in the country's troubled east left 12 rebels dead and one U.S. soldier slightly wounded, the U.S. military said Sunday.

The clash occurred Saturday in Paktika province, which borders Pakistan, said U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara.

"It was clearly the insurgents who fired upon us first," he said.

a tad more:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050522/ap_on_re_mi_ea/afghan_insurgents_killed

[ausiedownunderground]

1. Body Counts again! Always a worry! I remember Vietnam!

[classof56]

3. Ah, yes, the War of Attrition

I remember it well. "Today 57 American troops died, but over a thousand Viet Cong were killed." Great news, huh? Plus, I know that Australian troops, too, were in the war. When I lived in Seattle in 1967, I met a young lady from Australia who saw a news report from 'Nam featuring some soldiers, one of whom was a fellow countryman she knew. She broke down crying and remarked that Australia felt the necessity to send troops to help the Americans because if Australia were to come under attack, it was only America that would aid in their defense. Not sure if that was indeed the fact, but it was her take on it.

What an ugly, reprehensible war Viet Nam was--and now we're smack dab in the middle of another one. And not even any "Domino Theory" to claim as the reason for it all.

Peace

[LeighAnn]

2. Just like all the prisoners in Guantanamo were "clearly terrorists"

and not just taxi drivers and unwitting conscripts, etc.

[TheGunslinger]

4. And here U.S. was starting to keep troops stateside instead of deploying

I remember an article the other day that things were going so well in Afghanistan, some units marked for deployment to Afghanistan were being kept stateside instead.


"We're winning."

[maddezmom]

5. hmmm interesting update

Pakistan's military reported that some shells from the fighting landed in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region, but no one was hurt there.

Spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said the U.S. commander on the Afghan side of the border had informed his local Pakistani counterpart that they were engaged in a "skirmish with miscreants" — a byword for militants — very close to the Pakistani border.

"Certain shells did land in Pakistani area but there was no collateral damage," Sultan said.

However, a Pakistani intelligence official in Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan, said on condition of anonymity that five men were killed near the Pakistani village of Alwara Mandi by U.S. jet and rocket fire.

Alwara Mandi residents have picked up the bodies and have asked local people to help identify them, he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050522/ap_on_re_mi_ea/afghan_insurgents_killed

[chlamor]

6. kick n/t

[Rose Siding]

7. Chronicle rpts 5 dead inside Pakistan

Afghan firefight spills over into Pakistan

PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN - A battle between U.S. forces and insurgents in eastern Afghanistan spilled across the border into Pakistan during the weekend, and witnesses said U.S. rocket fire killed five Pakistani tribesmen.

U.S. attack helicopters opened fire in Lawara Mandai, a Pakistani border town in the North Waziristan tribal region, as U.S. forces pursued insurgents after what the U.S. military called an ambush by guerrillas, officials and residents said.

Although Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf quietly allows U.S. "hot pursuit" missions when guerrillas cross from Afghanistan into Pakistan, opposition groups have denounced the incursions as illegal attacks on sovereign Pakistani territory.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/headline/world/3193485