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Kunar provincial map. Click to view. |
Posted on 07/15/2008 12:08:05 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
By July 14, 2008 9:03 PM
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Kunar provincial map. Click to view. |
Yesterday's deadly complex attack on a joint US and Afghan outpost in Kunar province was carried out by a large, mixed force of Taliban, al Qaeda, and allied extremist groups operating eastern Afghanistan.
Sunday's assault occurred just three days after 45 US soldiers, likely from the 173rd Airborne Brigade, and 25 Afghan troops established a new combat outpost in the town of Wanat. The troops had little time to learn the lay of the land, establish local contacts, and build an intelligence network. The fortifications were not fully completed, according to initial reports.
A complex attack
The assault was carried out in the early morning of July 13 after the extremist forces, numbering between 200 and 500 fighters, took over a neighboring village. "What they [the Taliban] did was they moved into an adjacent village - which was close to the combat outpost - they basically expelled the villagers and used their houses to attack us," an anonymous senior Afghan defense ministry official told Al Jazeera. Tribesmen in the town stayed behind "and helped the insurgents during the fight," General Mohammad Qasim Jangalbagh, the provincial police chief, told The Associated Press.
The Taliban force then conducted a complex attack, coordinating a ground assault with supporting fires. Approximately 100 enemy fighters were reported to have moved close to the base while under a heavy barrage of machinegun fire, rocket-propelled grenades, and mortars. The fighters advanced on the outpost from three sides.
Taliban fighters breached the outer perimeter of the outpost but were repelled. US troops called in artillery, helicopter, and air support to help beat back the attacking force. Casualties were heavy on both sides, with nine US soldiers and 40 Taliban fighters killed during the assault. Fifteen US and four Afghan soldiers were also wounded in the attack.
An extremist alliance
The assault on the Wanat outpost was conducted by an alliance of extremist groups operating in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to reports. A senior Afghan defense official told Al Jazeera that "various anti-government factions including Taliban, al-Qaeda and the Hezb-i-Islami faction were involved" in the strike.
Tamim Nuristani, who served as governor of Nuristan before President Hamid Karzai relieve him of his post for criticizing a US airstrike that is thought to have killed Afghan civilians, said Taliban and Pakistani groups banded together for the attack. "The (attackers) were not only from Nuristan but from other districts," Nuristani said.
"They are not only Taliban. They were (Pakistan-based) Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hezb-i-Islami, Taliban and those people who are dissatisfied with the (Karzai) government after these recent incidents," Nuristani said, intimating the attack was revenge for the US airstrike. "They all came together for this one."
Kunar hosts a major infiltration route and a witches' brew of extremist
Activity in Kunar province has been particularly fierce over the past year. According to an Afghan security report obtained by The Long War Journal, Kunar suffered 963 attacks in 2007, making it the second most active province for insurgents, after Kandahar. The data for 2008 shows the same trend, with Kunar behind only Kandahar in the number of Taliban-related attacks.
TANKS,Ernest,,,
Time for F-16s not M-16s...
My thoughts, too.
Al Qaeda’s elite forces were likely involved in the planning and execution of Sunday's sophisticated attack in Kunar.”
I did read that Arabs and Chechens were involved. Now I have to track down that article....
This brigade are the shock troops...they usually lead from the front....they fought a rear action out of Tora Bora in 2001 allowing the leadership to escape. These guys are good.
Mite be a blocking force,,,
as of
July 14, 2008 ~~~Navy.mil.~~~
Ships and Submarines
Deployable Battle Force Ships: 280
Ships Underway (away from homeport): 134 ships (48% of total)
On deployment: 101ships (36% of total)
Attack submarines underway (away from homeport): 28 submarines (51%)
On deployment: 20 submarines (37%)
Ships Underway
Carriers:
USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) - Pacific Ocean
USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) - 5th Fleet
USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) - Atlantic Ocean
Amphibious Warfare Ships:
USS Peleliu (LHA 5) - 5th Fleet
USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) - Atlantic Ocean
USS Boxer (LHD 4) - Pacific Ocean
USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) - Pacific Ocean
USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) - Atlantic Ocean
~~~
I raise 1 MEU...
The infantry usually isn't able to call ahead for reservations. When an infantry platoon, the 45 U.S. soldiers, decides to occupy a location, they dig their own fighting positions with an entrenching tool, aka an E-tool, along a perimeter with respect to the terrain.
http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=entrenching+tool&ei=utf-8&fr=slv8-adbe&xargs=0&pstart=1&b=21&ni=20
Go to the link. You'll see a variety of them.
freep mailing you
no
Yes, he is one of the 9
yes
LOL, you are funny......I mean....SO THERE! That will teach him to type what he thinks.
Well as we are aware. CVN72 Carrier Battle Group is steaming toward Karachi. Things may soon change.
My husband was thinking the same thing after he heard the fortifications were incomplete. He also wondered if that wasn’t an awfully small group to be left in such a precarious area and under such circumstances.
The Dems have been telling us for years that Iraq is the ‘wrong war’ & that it is a ‘distraction’ from Afghanistan & the “Hunt for Osama.” Well, this could backfire on Obama & the kids over at the DNC. Isolated platoons taking casualties under desperate close-combat conditions high in the mountains sounds an awful lot like the Korean War. The Dems have no historical perspective, but if Harry Truman were around he’d tell them how that turned out (for the Democrats).
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