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| Afghanistan |
| Five Attackers Killed in Afghan Gunfight |
| 2003-03-13 |
| A U.S. special forces convoy was ambushed in eastern Afghanistan, and five of the assailants were killed in a subsequent gunfight and coalition air assault, an army spokesman said Thursday. No coalition forces were injured. About 20 attackers fired on the convoy with small arms and machine guns Wednesday from ridges overlooking a road between the towns of Gardez and Khost, Col. Roger King said. "Take that, Yankee scum! Ouch! Ouch!" Two attackers were captured and taken into custody for questioning, he said. At least five others were confirmed killed, he said, and the fate of the others was not immediately clear. "Where'd they go, Sarge?" "Don't know, you check the bottom of your boots?" "Damm, that'll never come out." The U.S. special forces, accompanied by a few Afghan militiamen, called in F-16 fighters and A-10 aircraft as support in a chase and firefight that lasted several hours, King said. He said the planes dropped two 500-pound bombs on suspected enemy positions. The special forces "were chasing these people as they tried to withdraw over an extended distance of rough terrain," King said. "It went on for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours." "Run away!" "The road that goes through the pass is a traditional ambush site," King said. It was not immediately clear who carried out Wednesday's attack, but U.S. officials believe al-Qaida, remnants of the ousted Taliban regime and loyalists of renegade rebel leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar are active in the area. They sound like Hek's boys. The groups are believed to have joined forces to attack coalition forces and the U.S. backed government of President Hamid Karzai. The group of attackers "was obviously hostile to the coalition because it was an easily recognizable convoy in that it had Humvees included," King said. Bet he said this with a straight face. The size of the group was similar to a band of Taliban fighters that killed five Afghan soldiers and kidnapped two others in the southern Helmand province several weeks ago, King said. Picked on the wrong guys this time. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #3 You just have to wonder about a country that has a "tradition" of roadside ambuscades... |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-03-13 13:48:42 |
| #2 Chuck---You beat me to the punch on that one... |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-03-13 09:44:37 |
| #1 "The road that goes through the pass is a traditional ambush site," It's like those shrines you see along American highways, where someone died in an auto accident. "Ah, yes, my son. This is where they got Uncle Otto, and before that, Grandpa's cousin Irv. And we got old, Ugly Leon here, and took his goats." |
| Posted by: Chuck 2003-03-13 09:30:28 |