At least 25 hurt in U.S. troop search in Afghanistan ( Americans die in friendly fire airstrike)

SwissInfo ^ | October 6th 2009 | Sharafuddin Sharafyar

[Cardhu]

HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - More than 25 NATO and Afghan troops were wounded during a search Friday for two missing U.S. paratroopers in western Afghanistan, the NATO-led force said.

The Taliban said the missing two missing soldiers were dead and it had recovered their bodies.

[Cardhu]

The chief of police in Badghis province in western Afghanistan, Abdul Jabar, said NATO aircraft had struck their own troops during the search and that several Americans had died in the "friendly fire" air strike.

NATO announced earlier Friday that two U.S. paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division had gone missing Wednesday while delivering supplies.

[Grumpybutt]

My son who is deploying to Afghanistan in January called earlier and said everyone in his unit are referring to the upcoming deployment as “two months til their deaths”.

Some of our troops have lost all hope due to lack of direction and mission while that son of a b*tch in the White House stalls for more troops to get the job done so he can push through a friggin health care bill nobody wants.

[Engineer_Soldier]

This is what I keep saying. Anymore, especially under our new Commander in Chief, you can’t believe ANYTHING the military says. For instance, when I was over there, I had to do a recovery mission on two choppers that went down. I knew as soon as we got to the scene of the crashes (a giant field outside of Kirkuk) that the military was lying to us and the American people about what had happened. Sure enough, my suspicions were correct. The same goes for five from my unit that died just outside of our gates of FOB Marez (Mosul). They died filling the bomber and his truck full of .50 cal bullets, but all of the news press releases from the military gave credit to the Iraqi Police/Army for stopping the bombers truck in order to show that they were taking care of themselves (which is a giant lie!). In fact, the bomber himself was wearing an Iraqi uniform; many of the casualties suffered over there are the result of IP and IA turning on us just like this Muslim in Fort Hood did yesterday.

[AppyPappy]

Sending two people to do anything in that hell hole is idiotic. If you need a squad, send a platoon. If you need a platoon, send a company.

[Cardhu]

They were sent to recover airdrop an container from a river and drowned. The Taliban claim they have the bodies.

Here is how it all began several hours ago:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2379973/posts

[Cardhu]

This is being reported by APF

“In the afternoon... during the search operation launched to find the two drowned American soldiers, a clash took place with Talibans. Then aircraft mistakenly bombed the Afghan and NATO defence lines,” said the deputy police chief.

Information on casualties was unclear but at least five Afghan personnel had been killed along with NATO personnel, he said.

“We don’t have an exact breakdown because helicopters came and evacuated the casualties out of the area.”

A Taliban spokesman claimed the toll was far higher than the Afghan police or NATO were reporting.

“There was... a firefight between Taliban and Afghan and foreign forces in Murghab district of Badghis province. The fighting lasted for hours and was very intense, at a close distance,” said the spokesman, Qari Yusuf Ahmadi.

“By the end of the day, foreign forces bombed the area where the clash was going on and due to their own bombing, 32 foreign and 43 Afghan soldiers were killed.”

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jjI6gMOdcG4gpOfrscQjF6DTZuLw