McChrystal Faces a Tough Road Ahead in Afghanistan
The new commander headed to the war zone just after his confirmation
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This is how Obama promise 2 American how he will fight Terrorist
pull back on the tatical air strike and close air support and reduce on full strength of the military out base defense and leave small forces on top of the hill is not a good tactic it a quick end strategy and a deathly blow to ya force if u set up battle that way. The F-18 speed is at march 1.8 good enought and well accurated to bomb the Taliban much better compare to F-15 and F-16 which are the speed level around march 2 and 2.5 not accurate for low level surgical air strike bombing as i watching fighter jet plane i discover they pulling F-18 back in the US instead of leaving them back in Afgan for the troop to using them as top air cover in 2009 watch this video on you tube ya know what i mean
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Attack on remote Afghan outposts kills 8 US troops
Attack on remote Afghan outposts kills 8 US troops
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By LORI HINNANT, Associated Press Writer Lori Hinnant, Associated Press Writer – Sun Oct 4, 7:39 am ET
KABUL – Militant fighters streaming from an Afghan village and a mosque attacked a pair of remote outposts near the Pakistani border, killing eight U.S. soldiers and as many as seven Afghan forces in one of the fiercest battles of the eight-year war.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the deadliest attack for coalition forces since a similar raid in July 2008 killed nine American soldiers in the same mountainous region known as an al-Qaida haven. The U.S. has already said it plans to pull its soldiers from the isolated area to focus on Afghan population centers.
Fighting began around dawn Saturday and lasted several hours, punctuated by American airstrikes. Jamaludin Badar, governor of Nuristan province, said the two outposts were on a hill — one near the top and one at the foot of the slope — flanked by the village on one side and the mosque on the other.
Nearly 300 militant fighters flooded the lower, Afghan outpost then swept around it to reach the American station on higher ground from both directions, said Mohammad Qasim Jangulbagh, the provincial police chief. The U.S. military statement said the Americans and Afghans repelled the attack by tribal fighters and "inflicted heavy enemy casualties."
Jangulbagh said that the gunbattle included U.S. airstrikes and that 15 Afghan police were captured by the Taliban, including the local police chief and his deputy. A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said a council would decide the fates of the police, confirming the capture of the two top local officers.
Badar said five or six Afghan soldiers died, as did one policeman.
Afghan forces were sent as reinforcements, but Jangulbagh said all communications to the district, Kamdesh, were severed and he had no way of knowing how they were faring Sunday. The area is just 20 miles (30 kilometers) from the Pakistani border and 150 miles (230 kilometers) from Kabul.
"This was a complex attack in a difficult area," U.S. Col. Randy George, the area commander, said in the American statement. "Both the U.S. and Afghan soldiers fought bravely together."
Jangulbagh said the bodies of five enemy fighters were found after the battle.
U.S. Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a military spokeswoman, said American forces continued to man the outpost and there was scattered fighting early Sunday. She said was unclear if the attackers were Taliban or from another group linked to them.
She said American officials were working with the Afghan army to relay messages to Afghan forces in the area.
Separately, a roadside bomb southwest of Kabul killed a U.S. service member on Saturday, Mathias said.
Nuristan, bordering Pakistan, was where a militant raid on another outpost in July 2008 claimed the lives of nine American soldiers and led to allegations of negligence by their senior commanders. Army Gen. David Petraeus last week ordered a new investigation into that fighting, in which some 200 militants armed with machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars pushed their way into the base, which is no longer operating.
Badar said he had sought more security forces for Kamdesh district. He said Taliban fighters had fled to Nuristan and neighboring Kunar province after Pakistani forces drove many extremists from the Swat Valley earlier this year.
"When there are few security forces, this is what happens," he said.
He also complained about a lack of coordination between international forces and Afghans.
The U.S. statement said the attack would not change previously announced plans to leave the area.
Afghanistan's northeastern Nuristan and Kunar provinces are home to al-Qaida bases as well as those of wanted terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whose military chief Kashmir Khan has been unsuccessfully targeted by U.S. missiles over the past eight years. Kamdesh district has no regular cell phone or landline contact and few roads, dirt or paved. Local security forces communicate by handheld radio.
The region was key for Arab militants who battled alongside Afghan warriors during the 1980s U.S.-backed war against invading Russians because it is a rare place in South Asia where the Wahhabi sect of Islam is practiced — the same sect followed by Osama bin Laden and most Saudis.
Many Arabs remained in Afghanistan, marrying Afghans and integrating themselves into local society. Many also belonged to Hekmatyar's Hezb-e-Islami group, now sought as terrorists by the U.S.-led coalition.
Bin Laden also considered the region a useful hiding ground, his former bodyguard, Naseer Ahmed Al-Bahri, told The Associated Press in a 2006 interview in Yemen.
It sits directly across the border from Pakistan's Bajaur Agency, where bin Laden's No. 2, Ayman al Zawahri, was last seen.
Peace
Too much troops in Afghanistan is not a good way to secure the poor nation and its people.It will trigger more attacks and just like the upper commenter said more mothers will suffer from sorrow of the grave of their sons.The US army 'd better withdraw and give Afghanistan the sovereignty.You know a lot of attacks happened because they want US army get out of their country.
Afghanistan war
Sir, it is not winnable war. It is winnable only if You are able to change middle-age thinking of all ( maybe even 80 %) Afghan population to force them to think as modern nation. Leave them a and give them more 50 years of own development. You wuill spare lot of sorrow of many American mothers above the grave of their sons. Jan Petraneki, old czech journalist, who know Afghanistan and coutries around for last 50 years
