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Keyword: afganistan

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  • Afghan insurgents find new opening for IED attacks

    07/25/2013 10:40:44 AM PDT · by kimtom · 3 replies
    start.toshiba.com ^ | 7/25/2013 | ROBERT BURNS
    <p>WASHINGTON (AP) — The shrinking U.S. combat role in Afghanistan has given insurgents an opening to devise and carry out deadlier attacks using bigger improvised bombs against U.S. and coalition military vehicles and bases, American officials say.</p> <p>With fewer U.S. forces patrolling road networks beyond their bases — and with the grounding of eye-in-the-sky surveillance balloons known as aerostats — Taliban fighters are adapting their tactics, according to officials at a Pentagon agency that tracks attacks that use improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.</p>
  • Afghanistan: Obama Surrenders

    06/20/2013 11:41:49 AM PDT · by libstripper · 12 replies
    Front Page Magazine ^ | June 20, 2013 | Robert Spencer
    “The Afghan War is coming to an end,” said Barack Obama on May 23, but it is not ending well. NBC News reported Tuesday that “U.S. and Taliban representatives will meet soon for the first time to begin what are expected to be long and complex negotiations for a peaceful settlement to the war in Afghanistan.” The U.S. entered Afghanistan to topple the Taliban from power and end their influence in the country. In light of that, these talks in themselves constitute an admission of failure. But these talks are far from the first of those.
  • FUNKER530 Raw Combat Footage [featured on Fox]

    09/28/2012 11:55:00 AM PDT · by Daffynition · 3 replies
    FUNKER530 ^ | Sept 26, 2012 | US Military helmet cams
    U.S. Soldier Survives Taliban Machine Gun Fire During Firefight
  • Recent Casualties Afganistan (a family friend)

    04/25/2012 2:32:05 AM PDT · by nevergore · 16 replies
    Tulsa World -AP ^ | 4-24-2012 | Tulsa World -AP
    Two soldiers died Sunday in a roadside bombing in Paktia, Afghanistan. They were 1st Lt. Jonathan P. Walsh, 28, of Cobb, Ga., and Pfc. Michael J. Metcalf, 22, of Boynton Beach, Fla. Both were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 504th Infantry, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.
  • Bags are packed.

    09/30/2011 7:17:10 PM PDT · by Hotmetal · 168 replies
    Hotmetal
    Just finished packing for my deployment to Afganistan. My orders start tomorrow and we will be at home station until the 4th. Going to Ft. Bliss for mobility training, then to the sandbox. I know we have internet access there but has anyone heard if any Freepers posting form there? I sure hope this site is not blocked so I can keep-up with whats going on back here.
  • Fights Break Out in Afghanistan as NATO Moves to Recover Downed Helicopter

    08/07/2011 4:10:37 PM PDT · by DBCJR · 45 replies
    FoxNews.com ^ | Published August 07, 2011
    U.S. soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 87th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division, secure the area after existing a Chinoonk helicopter, Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, in this Sunday, June 18, 2006 file photo. Insurgents apparently shot down a U.S. military helicopter Saturday Aug. 6, 2011 similar to this one shown during fighting in eastern Afghanistan, killing 30 Americans, most of them belonging to the same elite Navy SEALs unit that killed Usama bin Laden, as well as seven Afghan commandos, U.S. officials said. An Afghan official says there is fighting in the area where a U.S. Army Chinook helicopter was apparently...
  • Copter Downed by Taliban Fire; Elite U.S. Unit Among Dead

    08/06/2011 3:36:59 PM PDT · by rdb3 · 35 replies
    New York Times ^ | 6 AUGUST 2011 | RAY RIVERA, ALISSA J. RUBIN and THOM SHANKER
    KABUL, Afghanistan — In the deadliest day for American forces in the nearly decade-long war in Afghanistan, insurgents shot down a Chinook transport helicopter on Saturday, killing 30 Americans, including some Navy Seal commandos from the unit that killed Osama bin Laden, as well as 8 Afghans, American and Afghan officials said.
  • Obama expresses sorrow for 31 US troops killed in Afghan crash

    08/06/2011 9:27:08 AM PDT · by yoe · 128 replies
    The Hill ^ | August 8, 2011 | Alexander Bolton
    President Obama praised the sacrifice of 31 U.S. troops who died early Saturday morning in helicopter crash in Wardak Province, Afghanistan. The Taliban has claimed it shot down the aircraft with a rocket-propelled grenade. Seven Afghan soldiers on board the helicopter also died. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families and loved ones of the Americans who were lost earlier today in Afghanistan,” Obama said in a statement. “Their deaths are a reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices made by the men and women of our military and their families, including all who have served in Afghanistan.” Obama said...
  • U.S. official: Killed forces were on Afghanistan rescue mission

    08/06/2011 2:31:09 PM PDT · by truthandlife · 109 replies · 1+ views
    CNN ^ | 8/6/11 | David Ariosto and Barbara Starr
    Twenty-five U.S. special forces killed early Saturday in Afghanistan were on a mission to rescue another team of military personnel pinned down by insurgents, a U.S. military official told CNN. The helicopter that went down in eastern Afghanistan carried 30 U.S. military members, including 22 Navy SEALs and three other special forces. They were part of a "quick reaction force" sent in to pick up others engaged in a fierce firefight, the official said. In the single deadliest incident since the start of the decade-long Afghan war, the Army Chinook carrying a team of U.S. special forces and U.S. and...
  • Helicopter Crash in Afghanistan Reportedly Kills Members of SEAL Team 6

    08/06/2011 9:37:25 AM PDT · by spiderfern · 396 replies
    FOXNEWS.COM ^ | 8/6/2011 | Associated Press
    WASHINGTON -- The Associated Press has learned that more than 20 Navy SEALs from the unit that killed Osama bin Laden were among those lost in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/08/06/afghan-president-31-americans-killed-in-helicopter-crash/#ixzz1UGZcWiEh
  • Dozens Killed as NATO Helicopter Shot Down in Afghanistan

    08/06/2011 2:21:16 AM PDT · by BlackVeil · 121 replies · 1+ views
    New York Times ^ | 6 August 2011 | By RAY RIVERA and ALISSA J. RUBIN
    KABUL, Afghanistan — Insurgents shot down a NATO Chinook helicopter during an overnight operation in eastern Afghanistan, killing 37 people on board, a military official said on Saturday.
  • US Army Apologizes for Horrific Photos from Afghanistan

    03/21/2011 12:50:21 PM PDT · by libstripper · 58 replies
    Spiegel Online ^ | March 21, 2011 | Matthias Gebauer and Hasnain Kazim
    The images are repulsive. A group of rogue US Army soldiers in Afghanistan killed innocent civilians and then posed with their bodies. On Monday, SPIEGEL published some of the photos -- and the US military responded promptly with an apology. Still, NATO fears that reactions in Afghanistan could be violent.
  • Lesbian Army captain sent home from Afghistan for behaving like a 'lovestruck teenager,'(UK)

    03/03/2011 10:07:02 AM PST · by nmh · 49 replies
    Daily Mail ^ | 3/2/11 | Daily Mail Reporter
    A lesbian Army captain sent home from Afghanistan after she was accused of an 'inappropriate relationship' with a sergeant was behaving like a 'love struck teenager' and undermining operations, a tribunal heard today. Karen Tait, 29, who is claiming sexual discrimination against the Ministry of Defence and her commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Deborah Poneskis, upset the chain of command with her 'sly and underhand' behaviour, the employment tribunal in central London heard. ... The openly gay soldier, who started a sexual relationship with Sgt Caroline Graham before deployment with 4 Royal Military Police's 160 Provost Company, denies having any intimacy...
  • Meet ‘The Punisher’: A Soldier’s New Weapon of Choice

    02/14/2011 8:30:03 AM PST · by george76 · 41 replies
    big peace ^ | Feb 14th 2011
    The XM-25, Counter Defilade Target Engagement System with 25mm rounds, is semi-automatic, and includes fully integrated day/night, full-solution target acquisition/fire control. Soldiers in the field have given it the nickname “The Punisher.” ... In one engagement, an enemy machine gunner was “so badly wounded or so freaking scared that he dropped [his] weapon” and ran, said Lt. Col. Christopher Lehner, Program Manager Individual WeaponsThere were no casualties among units carrying the XM25 in those nine engagements, Lehner said. “No longer can the enemy shoot at American forces, then hide behind something,” said Brig. Gen. Peter Fuller of Program Executive Office...
  • ISR Needs Put Fighters in Surveillance Role

    02/01/2011 3:26:14 PM PST · by ErnstStavroBlofeld · 2 replies
    Aviation Week And Space Technology ^ | 2*/1/2011 | Angus Batey
    The same argument has been used to benefit defense by bringing the RAF imagery analysts from [39 Sqdn., operators of the Reaper, and 5 AC (Army Cooperation) Sqdn., which flies the Sentinel R1 Airborne Stand-Off Radar system] into TIW,” Stewart says. “So we have that umbrella organization that can provide far better output and support to operations and the development of capabilities.” The RAF’s operations go beyond fighters and are part of a service-wide focus on combat intelligence, surveillance, targeting and reconnaissance (Combat IStar). Since his appointment in July 2009, Air Chief Marshall Sir Stephen Dalton has made refocusing the...
  • G8 advocates no US troop withdrawal till 2015

    11/08/2010 9:53:00 AM PST · by Marty62 · 6 replies
    Nation(asianewsnet pulled) ^ | Published: June 30, 2010 | By: Kaswar Klasra |
    ISLAMABAD – At a time when British and American soldiers are dying in Afghanistan at an alarming rate, the US is unlikely to start withdrawal of troops in 2011. Infact, 2015 would be the year set for this process, diplomatic sources told TheNation, Tuesday. A spokesperson of the US Embassy in Islamabad, Richard Snelsire, was not available for comments, whilst a lady official (using the Spokesperson’s cell phone) advised this correspondent to contact the US Defence department in Washington for answers to queries relating to military activities. She was responding to a question when asked by this correspondent if the...
  • Pentagon Says Intel Contractors Went Too Far

    10/29/2010 4:50:50 AM PDT · by Marty62 · 22 replies
    AP ^ | Published October 29, 2010 | Associated Press
    WASHINGTON -- A military contractor says he'll fight Pentagon accusations that his people went too far in gathering intelligence in Afghanistan that ended up being used to target militants. A high-level Defense Department inquiry concluded that defense contractor Michael Furlong, a retired Army officer, ran what amounted to an illegal spying ring of private military contractors. The 15-page classified report into the matter, obtained by The Associated Press, says Furlong's human intelligence collection program, known as "Information Operations Capstone," amounted to a "violation of executive orders" and Defense Department policy.
  • U.S. Army Upgrades To .300 Winchester Magnum

    10/08/2010 10:07:43 PM PDT · by ErnstStavroBlofeld · 50 replies · 2+ views
    The Strategy Page ^ | 10/7/2010 | The Strategy Page
    The U.S. Army has ordered 3,600 upgrade kits for its M24 bolt-action sniper rifles, which will convert them to the M24E1. This will turn the existing 7.62mm M24 rifles into ones capable of firing the .300 Winchester magnum (7.62x67) round. This is a more powerful round than the NATO 7.62x51 round currently used in the M24. The conversion kit includes a new receiver and barrel, a new scope, a new flash suppressor and a folding buttstock. The conversion will take five years and will cost about $7,800 per rifle. Last year, the army ordered 38.4 million rounds of .300 Winchester...
  • Shell-Shocked Dog of War Finds a Home With the Family of a Fallen Hero

    10/06/2010 6:40:59 AM PDT · by libstripper · 68 replies · 1+ views
    Wall Street Journal ^ | October 6, 2010 | MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS
    SCIO, N.Y.—Gunner, a bomb-sniffing dog mustered out of the Marines for canine post-traumatic stress disorder, has found a new home with Deb and Dan Dunham, whose Marine son died in Iraq protecting the men beside him.
  • The reluctant commander in chief

    09/24/2010 5:05:08 AM PDT · by libstripper · 12 replies
    Washington Post ^ | September 24, 2010 | MIchael Gerson
    What is most disturbing about the coverage of Bob Woodward's "Obama's Wars" is not the juicy bits of conflict and infighting; it is the fact that the White House seems pleased with the image of President Obama that emerges. "I think the president comes across pretty well in the book," says one official, "even if it looks crazy around him." What comes across is a president deeply skeptical about the Afghan war, suspicious of the advice of military leaders and obsessed with finding exits and setting withdrawal deadlines. To a press or political aide in the administration, this must seem...