Posted on 04/22/2017 10:52:50 AM PDT by Trump20162020
KABUL, Afghanistan — A day after a lethal Taliban assault on an army base in northern Afghanistan, an official said on Saturday that at least 140 soldiers had been killed, making it the single deadliest known attack on an Afghan military base in the course of the long war.
“Today, there was even a shortage of coffins,” said the official, Ibrahim Khairandish, a member of the provincial council in Balkh Province, where the attack occurred. Citing information from army officials, Mr. Khairandish said 60 soldiers had also been wounded in the attack.
The soldiers, most of them unarmed, were shot while eating lunch or emerging from a Friday Prayer service at the headquarters of the Afghan Army’s 209th Corps in Balkh by assailants in military uniforms who entered after another attacker had detonated explosives at a check post. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assault.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Afghanistan will never be a normal country. What a waste of blood and treasure.
Simply not worth the death or maiming of one more American.
I think I've found the problem. When I was in Afghanistan everyone was required to have their weapon with them at all times. That meant everywhere...work, the BX, the chow hall, the bazaar, even the communal crapper. It also made for a very safe environment. Everyone armed and virtually no crime.
The lust for controlling Afghani resources was passed off as humanitarian concerns. Honestly, I don't think a US soldier should've ever suffered so much as a scraped knee so Afghani girls could learn to read or whatever was the excuse-of-the-day for intervention.
I never understood why GWB went in there. Saudi Arabia is the country we needed, and still need, to worry about. It would've made much more sense to stop Afghanis and their poppy crop from leaving their country than aspiring to control or change them.
Were they US soldiers?
Crazy a base in that area during constant war and the idiots are unarmed... in a mosque at certain times...freakin’ animals muzzies are...I feel no empathy or sympathy...commanders are obviously brain dead and are surely surrounded by armed guards.
Time for mother to drop the other shoe
I was going to recommend colored armed bands, changed daily, but 4 on the inside let in 10.
60 additional wounded...all this by 10-14 people ?
and why were the Afghans unarmed ?
Nope, not a one.
If an American was injured or killed, the NYT would have lead with that.
Afghanistan looks like Vietnam right now. Pretty sure to see a tyrannical takeover coming.
Convenient ignorance.
They are unarmed because they cant be trusted.
This country has been tribal and fought each other (as well as any invader) for thousands of years——you cannot change the basics and people-—what kind of idiots do we have running our military to send our troops to A place like this?-—read your history books!!
This article starts so poorly written that I don’t think it is worth reading.
A good place for snipers.
It took the democrats 50 years to turn this country on its head and it is still occurring. What makes you so certain?
>read your history books!!<
If our leaders knew anything about history they would have never let muslims in our country.
They would also eject those who are already here.
Apparently two suicide bombers mixed in with the crowd leaving prayer services was the biggest cause of fatalities (about half). They had infiltrators observing and planning this for a long time.
These Corps bases are the Headquarters for the whole region of the Country. The one attacked here outside of Mazar-i-Sharif governs the North, with its large Uzbek and Tajik populations - which have been long time rivals of the Pashtun Taliban.
Yes, let's just leave the Taliban and other savage jihadists in Afghanistan alone, so they can take control of the entire country and turn it into one giant terrorism training zone, funded by the virtually limitless profits realized from narco-trafficking—which, of course, will ultimately result in the death and maiming of countless more Americans.
Just a thought.
Sometimes peaceful co-existence with vicious animals is problematic...
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