Swedish soldier dies in Afghanistan

The Local (AFP) ^ | 26th November 2005 | AFP staff

[anguish]

One of four Swedish peacekeepers wounded in a bomb explosion in Afghanistan has died of his injuries, the Swedish military said late on Friday.

The four Swedish troops, two of whom were said to be seriously injured in Friday's explosion in Mazar-i-Sharif, were from the NATO-led ISAF, which was set up in 2001, and were part of a British provincial reconstruction team.

"Shortly after midnight local time (2100 Stockholm time) ISAF's military hospital in Kabul announced that one of the two seriously injured Swedes had died," the statement said.

"The soldier was seriously injured in a bomb attack in Mazar-i-Sharif around lunchtime, Swedish time, Friday," it said. The identity of the peacekeeper was not given.

The explosion, caused by a remote controlled bomb, happened as the truck in which the peacekeepers were travelling passed as part of a four-vehicle patrol.

It took place near the centre of the city, where a British ISAF soldier was killed in an ambush nearly a month ago.

The second Swedish soldier remains in a serious condition in the hospital, while the other two injured are being treated in a hospital in neighbouring Uzbekistan, the statement said.

ISAF, made up of more than 8,000 troops from 36 countries, has been in Afghanistan since the former hardline Taliban government was toppled in a US-led invasion in late 2001. It came under NATO command in 2003.

The British soldier killed on October 29 was shot in an ambush on his convoy near the city's famous Blue Mosque. Five other people in the convoy were hurt.

Prior to that, attacks on ISAF peacekeepers working in northern and western Afghanistan have been rare. In the past two weeks though two ISAF soldiers have been killed in and around the capital.

A Portuguese soldier was killed on the outskirts of Kabul on November 18 when a bomb struck an ISAF vehicle. He was the 56th ISAF soldier to be killed in Afghanistan.

On November 14 a German soldier was killed in twin suicide bomb blasts targeted at ISAF vehicles. Six Afghans were also killed.

Two days later three civilians were killed in the volatile southern city of Kandahar in a suicide attack on a US-Afghan military convoy.

The suicide attacks were claimed by militants loyal to the Taliban government that was toppled in November 2001 after they did not hand over Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

ISAF troops are based mainly in Kabul and the northern and western parts of Afghanistan, helping to maintain security and working on civilian and military Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT).

A separate US-led coalition of nearly 20,000 troops, most of them American, is based mainly in the more volatile south and east, the focus of attacks by Taliban and other insurgents.

Plans are under way to push ISAF troops into southern Afghanistan by next year, partly taking over from the US-led coalition hunting Taliban and other Islamic militants, including Bin Laden.

A Taliban-led insurgency against the new US-backed government has been the deadliest this year with nearly 1,500 people killed, most of them militants slain in clashes with security forces.

There are about 100 troops from Sweden with ISAF. The Swedish foreign ministry said this month it wanted to double its contingent and take over the Mazar-i-Sharif PRT, currently being run by Britain, in March 2006.

AFP

[anguish]

Sad, but all political parties except the "Left party" (Communists) still support the planned increase in troop numbers.

[anguish]

Sad Swedish ping

[starfish923]

They called themselves "peacekeepers."
Sweden will bring the others home and not send any more. They don't have the stomach for it anymore.
When I think of the HUNDREDS of thousands of U.S. troops lying in national cemeteries and foreign graves, I try NOT to be cynical about the death of ONE Swedish soldier....who didn't go there even to fight, but to "keep the peace."

Sorry, but it's tough for me to be sad. Soldiers here get killed in TRAINING.....

[Charles Henrickson]

Ping to the Swedish Ping List.

[truth_seeker]

Here is what the Swedish poster said, in #1 above

"...all political parties except the "Left party" (Communists) still support the planned increase in troop numbers."

Which indicates you may be wrong.

I thank the Swedes, and any other nation contributing. It makes no sense to belittle their contribution.

[asp1]

I agree with you. God bless this young man and give his family strength and comfort.

[Dubya]

Soldier rest, Gently pressed,
To the calm, Mother Earth's
Waiting breast;
Duty done, Like the sun:
Going West.

[starfish923]

Here is what the Swedish poster said, in #1 above "...all political parties except the "Left party" (Communists) still support the planned increase in troop numbers."
Which indicates you may be wrong.
You are right, the indication is there.
With an INCREASE of troops, they may DOUBLE their force from four to eight peacekeepers, who won't fight, of course, because that wouldn't be "their job."

I thank the Swedes, and any other nation contributing. It makes no sense to belittle their contribution.

I thank them too, rather, HIM, as one, (1) peacekeeper lost his life.....NOT fighting.
Is saying that it's "hard to be sad" so belittling? Esecially when I said that in the context of the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of dead American soldiers lying in graves all over the world? In the context of what American soldiers are doing now?

Remember what the Swedes did in WWII? Kind of hard to forget that if you had anyone who served in Europe or the Pacific. I don't think the NORWEIGANS forget.

I think it makes a LOT of sense to compare. I also remember the Swedes and their EXCORIATION of us and our race relations.....that is, until their own problem with the Laps and later the Turks emerged. When the racism was on THEIR doorstep, which it had been in their treatment of their own Laps, it was "different." That was always THEIR excuse for their treatment of THEIR indigenous people. "The Laps? Oh, that's different."

One Swedish soldier peacekeeper dying shouldn't have even been a story. But that's my opinion.

I visit friends in Sweden every other year. I love'em, their people and their country. The Swedes had a long history of soldiering, from the Vikings to the 17th (?) century, but they don't have the stomach for it anymore.

I call'em like I see'em. That's not belittling, that's the facs, jack.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

What they did in WWII was crappy.

In part,I think Sweden turned inward after the wars of Charles XII. They fought against the armies of Peter the Great, overwintered 40,000 soldiers in Russia, and drove the Russians all the way to Poltava in the Ukraine. The fought a battle against the Russians in which they had little if any gunpowder, were vastly outnumbered, and almost beat them anyway. (Charles XII was was shot & wounded, his generals squabbled, and a divided command lost the day.)

During the 1870 to 1900 period something like 1/10 of the population of Sweden immigrated to the USA. A bit of a drain on a countries resources and tax base. Harder to raise an army, harder to fight a war. I suspect that Swedes got tired of fighting after 700 years of royal wars.

[starfish923]

What they did in WWII was crappy.
In part,I think Sweden turned inward after the wars of Charles XII. They fought against the armies of Peter the Great, overwintered 40,000 soldiers in Russia, and drove the Russians all the way to Poltava in the Ukraine. The fought a battle against the Russians in which they had little if any gunpowder, were vastly outnumbered, and almost beat them anyway. (Charles XII was was shot & wounded, his generals squabbled, and a divided command lost the day.)
During the 1870 to 1900 period something like 1/10 of the population of Sweden immigrated to the USA. A bit of a drain on a countries resources and tax base. Harder to raise an army, harder to fight a war. I suspect that Swedes got tired of fighting after 700 years of royal wars.

No doubt. No stomach for fighting anymore.
They now have to focus on staying even, keeping their population where it is, both IN Sweden and producing enough children to take care of the ever-increasing aging and longer living population.
They even handed over Norway to the Norweigans in 1905. That was probably the "final straw."

[anguish]

Jesper Lindblom (1977-2005) who was killed was a member of SSG (Särskilda SkyddsGruppen - Special Protection Group), a special forces team it's been next to impossible to gain information about. Jesper, like the other members in SSG, had a so-called "protected identity". SSG's mission in Afghanistan has been to retrieve intelligence and protect leaders within the Afghan government.

-- About SSG from Wikipedia --

Since Sweden has not been to war for 200 years, SSG does not operate often. It has done operations including reconnaissance in an undisclosed African nation. The unit also deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Over there it was part of International Security Assistance Force, a task force responsible for security in Kabul and other areas. SSG has been deployed to Congo under french command, where they engaged enemy forces several times without any losses on their own.

--- ---

While understanding the temptation to belittle the individual and collective sacrifices of foreigners from a tiny country in the north, I have to bite my lip not to respond in kind. Some have class, some don't.

[fdsa2]

Get your facs (sic) right then. We neither search nor want your approval.

[starfish923]

While understanding the temptation to belittle the individual and collective sacrifices of foreigners from a tiny country in the north, I have to bite my lip not to respond in kind. Some have class, some don't.

Well, you INSIST that I am belittling, so it does no good to tell you yet again that I am not. You are locked into that mode. I can see that.

You just belittled ME with your "some have class" remark, so you must find it OKEY-DOKEY to belittle those with whom you disagree. Lol. Typical.

You also, most snidely suggested that I belittle TINY countries AND their sacrifices. That shows a large amount of skewed assumptions. You are as rude as you THINK I am.

But, then your own given-call sign seems to describe yourself. You appear too wrapped up in your own unhappiness with life to see beyond it. I feel quite sorry for you, but I'm glad I don't know you.

[starfish923]

Get your facs (sic) right then. We neither search nor want your approval.

I wrote NO facts about Sweden's current peacekeeping operations, so your vective was truly mis-aimed. Not even a halfway good try. I guess it was merely an excuse for you to put up your graphic. I bet you do that EVERY chance you get. You must feel very insecure.

Get a life and try to dislodge that GIANT chip on your shoulder.

The Swedes I know have lives and don't have to go onto foreign websites and scold foreigners when their precious view of their world doesn't jive absolutely with what they believe. This IS a discussion site and other points of view are allowed to be put forth without the emotional outpouring of angst....or misguided insults.

Who searched or wanted YOUR approval? I neither searched for it nor wanted it. Get over yourself.

And what's this "we" ka-ka? You sure don't speak for Sweden and/or all/any of the Swedish population beyond yourself.
That's a fac, Jack. By the way, the "sp" after "fac" is unnecessary, you know, even for Swedes. Lol.

[fdsa2]

No "chip on shoulder" or "insecurity", just a completely different perspective.

http://www.algonet.se/~hogman/slkrig_eng.htm

I am sure there is hundred of thousands of Swedish soldiers left on battlefields near and far - what´s your point?

I am sorry our boys in Afhanistan are not dying in suffient numbers to satisfy you.

[starfish923]

No "chip on shoulder" or "insecurity", just a completely different perspective.
No chip? They why the insults? Insults = either chip on shoulder or bad manners. Take your pick.
I didn't insult YOU. I didn't belittle anyone either. I just said that it was hard for me to feel sad over the death of ONE soldier when so many hundreds of thousands of OURS are dead. Do you feel sad when ONE American soldier dies? Somehow I doubt it. Or, you simply didn't mention in your replies to me.

I am sure there is hundred of thousands of Swedish soldiers left on battlefields near and far - what´s your point?
I already made my point, more than once. See above for the third time. If you don't understand it yet, then you simply don't want to.

I am sorry our boys in Afhanistan are not dying in suffient numbers to satisfy you.
More insults. Your chip is showing. Perhaps rudeness comes so natural to you that you aren't aware of it.
You might reconsider staying on a site where others disagree with you. Though perhaps you enjoy the ability to insult others and still call it a "completely different perspective."

Ignore button ============== ON.

[fdsa2]

First, fine maybe I over reacted a bit, and for that I appologize.

But you did write:

"HIM, as one, (1) peacekeeper lost his life.....NOT fighting"

"With an INCREASE of troops, they may DOUBLE their force from four to eight peacekeepers, who won't fight, of course, because that wouldn't be "their job." "

"HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of dead American soldiers lying in graves all over the world"

That was why I posted the graph and later the link. It shows the true numbers of Swedish military personal in Afghanistan. Further there has been reports that the person who died and the rest of his unit SSG have been fighting alongside Uk and other forces.

My two cents.

[Grzegorz 246]

They are being called peacekeepers (the whole ISAF mission) only because of diplomatic reasons and Sweden is not even in NATO, so they don't have any obligations to send anyone to Afghanistan.

Honestly when I think about Sweden I see pederasts and feminists but in this case you should at least try to be grateful.