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Afghanistan/South Asia
50 Militants Said Killed in Afghan Clash
2004-08-03
Afghan and U.S. troops backed by warplanes killed as many as 50 militants in a day-long battle near the Pakistani border, the U.S. military said Tuesday, one of the bloodiest clashes since American forces entered Afghanistan. One Afghan soldier was also killed and three others wounded in the fighting which raged all day Monday in Khost province, a former al-Qaida stronghold south of the capital, Kabul, a military statement said. "Allied forces staved off rockets, mortars, rocket propelled grenades and machine gun fire throughout the day and into the night," the statement said. "The exact number of enemy casualties is unknown, but pilots flying overhead estimated that approximately 40-50 insurgents were killed." The battle began at about 2 a.m. on Monday when militants assailed a border post in the south of the province. Afghan officials said on Monday that they had found the bodies of two attackers, while the U.S. military said only that it had inflicted "heavy" losses on the rebels.
They hauled away the bodies, SOP
In Tuesday's statement, the U.S. military said the attackers numbered about 50, but retreated "in panic" when warplanes included a B-1 bomber, an A-10 ground attack aircraft and helicopters arrived on the scene. The Afghan soldier died in a fresh skirmish later that morning, the U.S. military said, though Afghan Gen. Khial Baz said that two of his men had died. The U.S. military said the fighting continued into Monday night, but gave no further details.
Posted by:Steve

#5  Weigh the vultures. Come back in two weeks and weigh them again.
Posted by: tu3031   2004-08-03 7:42:00 PM  

#4  can' they just check with a sattelite if they are really interested?
Well, that's possible, IF:
1. IF there's no obscurring cloud cover.
2. IF they actually dug graves, instead of just moved a bunch of rocks. That terrain isn't the greatest for digging.
3. IF you know where (within a given area) they actually buried the people.
4. IF they didn't hide the bodies by "burying" them inside caves, which the tribalists in that area have done in the past.
5. IF they bury all the dead in the same area (disburse 40 KIA over 40 cemeteries, and it's hard to see a pattern of increase).
6. IF there aren't a bunch of people being killed in the tribal area at the same time, and they don't bury two people in the same grave.
7. IF you've got the resources to spare looking for graves, when they could be better used looking for live enemy to kill.

Satellite reconnaissance is neither easy nor cheap, and it's not something that you can do with the snap of a finger. It takes lots of planning, tons of resources, and close coordination between some dozen different agencies. I don't think looking for new graves is very high on anybody's agenda.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2004-08-03 5:41:36 PM  

#3  can' they just check with a sattelite if they are really interested?
Posted by: curious naive   2004-08-03 11:54:48 AM  

#2  If it were near the border there would have been transport available just on the other side to move the bodies to a place of burial. Moslem burial practices require quick interments so they would not have been moved far.

In Wazieristan most villages have graveyards somewhere close by. The people there are so poor there are not many monuments so graves typically have flags on poles above them. It would be exceedingly difficult to go into the Tribal Areas and check graveyards for recent dead. Tribesmen are a law unto themselves in there and the Pakistanti troops would not stir up trouble over something like that. However I rather imagine the Agent (Pak officials who act as intermediaries between the government and tribesmen) would drive by the local graveyards to see if they were suddenly a lot of flags going up in a given area.

Posted by: Jim Graves   2004-08-03 11:34:34 AM  

#1  this is a goulish thought, but what is required to haul away the dead if one isn't allowed to use trucks? How are bodies disposed of in (Presumably Waziristan) the border region.
would there be alarge number of fresh graves in a graveyard, or would the graves be dispersed.

I know from having to bury a 150 lbs calf that to dig a 6 ft by 2 ft by 4ft deep hole with pick and shovel is going to leave some sort of visual signature.

policy statements aside, I strongly suspect that estimated E-KIA numbers are kept, and if the leadership has any detectable brain function at all, this number is kept highly classified.
Posted by: N Guard   2004-08-03 10:38:07 AM  

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