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20 dead as US, Afghans battle suicide bombers
allen griggs
Member Posts: 35,509 ✭✭✭✭
20 dead as US, Afghans battle suicide bombers
AP
KABUL - Eleven Taliban suicide bombers struck government buildings Tuesday in a bold, daylong assault in eastern Afghanistan, sparking running gunbattles with U.S. and Afghan forces that killed 20 people and wounded three Americans, officials said.
Troops freed 20 hostages taken by insurgents.
The battle in Khost, a border city that houses a major American base, came as the U.S. made leadership changes that demonstrate a clear break from Bush-era appointees, with President Barack Obama taking charge of an increasingly bloody eight-year war that the Pentagon once believed had been won.
New U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, a former three-star general, presented his credentials to President Hamid Karzai in the capital. On Monday, the war's top U.S. commander, Gen. David McKiernan, was replaced by Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who has been a leader of special forces.
Tuesday's assault began around 10 a.m., when a suicide bomber in a burqa attacked the governor's compound in Khost. That was followed by a suicide car bombing, said Wazir Pacha, the spokesman for the provincial police chief.
Khost residents hid from explosions and gunbattles that lasted until 5 p.m. Twenty people were taken hostage. At least 11 insurgents and nine other people - including police and civilians - died, the Defense Ministry said.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed that 30 suicide bombers had attacked the government buildings.
Teams of Taliban militants have launched multipronged assaults on government centers in Kabul, Kandahar and Helmand's capital in the last year, demonstrating an increasing sophistication in their attacks. Military analysts have said such attacks are a result of training by Pakistani militants and al-Qaida fighters.
After the first explosions Tuesday, U.S. forces attending a nearby meeting responded to the attacks and killed an unknown number of militants, said Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, a U.S. military spokeswoman.
AP
KABUL - Eleven Taliban suicide bombers struck government buildings Tuesday in a bold, daylong assault in eastern Afghanistan, sparking running gunbattles with U.S. and Afghan forces that killed 20 people and wounded three Americans, officials said.
Troops freed 20 hostages taken by insurgents.
The battle in Khost, a border city that houses a major American base, came as the U.S. made leadership changes that demonstrate a clear break from Bush-era appointees, with President Barack Obama taking charge of an increasingly bloody eight-year war that the Pentagon once believed had been won.
New U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, a former three-star general, presented his credentials to President Hamid Karzai in the capital. On Monday, the war's top U.S. commander, Gen. David McKiernan, was replaced by Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who has been a leader of special forces.
Tuesday's assault began around 10 a.m., when a suicide bomber in a burqa attacked the governor's compound in Khost. That was followed by a suicide car bombing, said Wazir Pacha, the spokesman for the provincial police chief.
Khost residents hid from explosions and gunbattles that lasted until 5 p.m. Twenty people were taken hostage. At least 11 insurgents and nine other people - including police and civilians - died, the Defense Ministry said.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed that 30 suicide bombers had attacked the government buildings.
Teams of Taliban militants have launched multipronged assaults on government centers in Kabul, Kandahar and Helmand's capital in the last year, demonstrating an increasing sophistication in their attacks. Military analysts have said such attacks are a result of training by Pakistani militants and al-Qaida fighters.
After the first explosions Tuesday, U.S. forces attending a nearby meeting responded to the attacks and killed an unknown number of militants, said Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, a U.S. military spokeswoman.
Comments
What is our goal in Afghanistan?
We have been fighting there for 7 years.
This is much longer than WW2 lasted. It is probably longer than our Revolution lasted.
Who are we killing?
How much longer should American troops die in this country?
In 2002, Afghanistan was the breeding ground for the 9/11 terrorists.
They were in league with the Taliban, which governed the country.
I fully supported President Bush's invasion of this country.
I am sure that bin Laden and his cohorts were surprised that their little nest of terrorists was destroyed by the United States.
Afghanistan has been the wrecking ground of empires.
In the 1800s, England was the mightiest empire the world had ever seen.
They invaded Afghanistan, I don't know why, maybe, they just liked invading places.
After years of conflict, England withdrew, and the Afghanis went back to cutting each other's throats.
This inspired this poem by Rudyard Kipling:
When you're lying wounded, on Afghanistan's plains
And the women come out to cut up what remains
Just roll to your rifle, and blow out your brains
And go to your God like a soldier.
Kipling had a grim viewpoint of fighting in Afghanistan.
In the 20th century, Russia had one of the mightiest empires the world had ever seen.
They invaded Afghanistan. After years of bitter conflict, and many Russian casualties, the Russians withdrew, and the Afghanis went back to cutting each other's throats.
What do we hope to accomplish in this country?
I made this suggestion years ago, when George Bush was President, and it is still good today.
We announce to the world that we will withdraw all troops in 6 months.
In that time, we will build a lot of hospitals, fix some roads, etc.
No need to build schools, the Taliban won't allow any girls to go to school, and will only teach the boys radical Muslim crap.
We announce that we have severely damaged the al Quaeda/Taliban groups, because they knocked down the World Trade Center.
If any radical group re-forms in Afghanistan, and harms America, we will come right back, and kick *, all over again.
To do so would involve a draft and that would be political suicide.
Afghanistan reminds me of the Tar Baby we read in the 3rd grade.
It's upsetting that we dribble away American boys' lives because we don't go into battle in sufficient force.
To do so would involve a draft and that would be political suicide.
Afghanistan reminds me of the Tar Baby we read in the 3rd grade.
What draft?? if it would have been handled right in the first place, we had more than enough to take care of business therewithout ever thinking a draft would be needed
Come to think of it, that would make sense.
A few decades earlier, they started a war with China, to force China to buy British-supplied opium.
It was called the Opium War.
Buy it in Afghanistan, sell it in China, I guess that was how it worked.