22 Killed In Afghanistan Battle

NEWS.com.au ^ | 8-17-03 | Correspondents In Kabul

[PatrioticCowboy]

22 killed in Afghanistan battle

From correspondents in Kabul

August 17, 2003

USING rockets, grenades and heavy machine guns, insurgents briefly seized a district police headquarters in southeastern Afghanistan, prompting a gunbattle that killed 15 fighters and seven Afghan police, a police chief said today.

The siege began shortly before midnight Saturday when about 400 guerrillas attacked the police headquarters in the town of Barmal in Paktika province, about 200 km southeast of Kabul, said provincial governor Mohammed Ali Jalali.

The fighters took over the office and held it until 5 am Sunday before destroying the building and retreating amid a gunbattle with police, said police chief Daulat Khan.

Jalali said that more than 20 insurgents and seven police were killed. But Khan said that 15 fighters died. The men said that the insurgents took the bodies with them when they fled across the border to Pakistan.

Jalali said the insurgents included Taliban and fighters loyal to warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former prime minister who heads Hezb-e-Islami, a faction which has called for attacks against foreigners in Afghanistan.

The Taliban were ousted in late 2001 by the US-led coalition, which continues to hunt Taliban and al-Qaida fugitives. The coalition force numbers about 11,500 foreign soldiers, 8500 of whom are American.

The Associated Press

[PatrioticCowboy]

ping

[PatrioticCowboy]

There seems to be some intense fighting in Afghanistan in the past few days.

This is the latest news I could find at at Google News about it

[RightOnline]

"...when they fled across the border to Pakistan."

Don't know about y'all..........but I'm tired of reading these words.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[PatrioticCowboy]

I am too.

Our foreign policy makers made that same mistake in Vietnam.

They should have took the fight into Cambodia and North Vietnam.

The Rhodesians made that mistake for years in their counter-insurgency against Marxist terrorists

Only in the late 1970's, did Rhodesia correct that problem, but by then UN sanctions had hurt their economy badly

[MEG33]

I believe the Pakistani authorities have also been fighting in their tribal no man's land close to the border..a rare thing.That area is a war lord stronghold and they protect the Taliban.

[PatrioticCowboy]

Our military needs to adopt the counter-insurgency tactics that the Rhodesians used.

The Portuguese counter-insurgency tactics in Mozambique are also very effective.

[MEG33]

I have no experience or knowledge as a military strategist!

[PatrioticCowboy]

Google about it.

Look up Rhodesian and Portuguese insurgencies in Africa.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

how about the ever popular "fled across the border to Mexico"

how does this make you feel?

[PatrioticCowboy]

Rhodesia and Portugal were legendary, in that they could carry on effective counter-insurgencies against Marxist terrorists.

They done so on a shoe-string budget

[stumpy]

Me too. I suggest a few "arc lights" on the border towns that they hide in. Will P.O. the locals that survive, but fewer places for the bad guys to hide.

[Austin Willard Wright]

I think you forgot to add Chiang Kai Shek's effective counter-insurgency methods to the list...and Batista's of course.

[Austin Willard Wright]

Weren't these the same "legendary" counterinsurgency methods that converted much of the Portuguese military to Marxism (reading all that Mao) and set-the stage for a coup in the 1970s which put Portugal on the verge of becoming a Communist state?

[sandydipper]

Nuke 'em and take their coin purses.

[PatrioticCowboy]

Yes, that is all true, but the Portuguese Comandos (Spec Ops) were legendary troopers who were immensely feared and respected in Mozambique and Angola.

They used old World War Two small arms a lot and rode horses to negate the effects of land mines and bad roads.

[PatrioticCowboy]

Batista was a tin-pot dictator lunatic.

Chiang Kai-Shek was a born-again Christian.

He retreated to Formosa and made that little island a world economic super-power

[PatrioticCowboy]

The Rhodesian military was also legendary in counter-insurgency.

South Africa's Recce and Parabat soldiers also fought extremely well in Namibia and Angola

[Austin Willard Wright]

Fled to Formosa? Well...at least he lived to fight another day. The Portuguese leaders, on the other hand, were thoroughly repudiated and humiliated by their own troops who overthrew them in a coup in the 1970s and then promptly withdrew from Africa.