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| Afghanistan |
| 150 Tickets to Paradise issued since Sunday |
| 2010-06-29 |
| As many as 150 insurgent fighters have been killed since Sunday in a major offensive involving about 700 U.S. and Afghan troops along eastern Afghanistan's border with Pakistan, a senior military official confirmed to Fox News early Tuesday. The U.S.-led operation was one of the largest yet in the region, officials told The Washington Post, who described the assault as "one of the most intense battles of the past year." In a statement Sunday, NATO's International Security Assistance Force said more than 600 ISAF and Afghan troops were pursuing Al Qaeda and Taliban militants in Kunar and that "a number of insurgents" were killed. Two American troops were also killed in the battle, according to ISAF. The offensive was designed to flush out growing numbers of Taliban militants bidding to open up a second front in Kunar, as U.S.-led forces root out insurgents in southern Afghanistan, the Post reported. "The Taliban know we are bringing our surge of forces, and they realize they can't just let that happen, so they are pursuing their own surge," Maj. Gen. John Campbell, the senior commander in eastern Afghanistan, told the newspaper. The U.S.-led force in Kunar gave no prior warning of the offensive, unlike the onslaught in Marjah in southern Afghanistan earlier this year. "We needed the element of surprise in that terrain," Colonel Andrew P. Poppas was quoted as saying. U.S. and Afghan troops were flown in before dawn Sunday on Black Hawk helicopters and seized mountainous ground in Kunar's Marawara district, but soon came under attack from as many as 200 insurgents, the newspaper reported. "Once the battle began, others from the area tried to maneuver into the area," Poppas was quoted as saying. "This was a tough fight." The heaviest fighting subsided by Monday morning. U.S. and Afghan forces are now trying to restore government authority in Marawara's main village. "The tough part is still ahead," Poppas said. |
| Posted by:GolfBravoUSMC |
| #4 If your enemy are half intelligent, when told where an offensive will be, if outgunned they will bug out. But this is freaking Asia. Common sense and honesty do not apply. I remember a lecture given by LTC Bo Gritz, who with his top notch Hmong army, deep behind enemy lines, told his Hmong that they needed to do a mission on the Tet holiday. They immediately started digging in. Puzzled, he asked them WTF?, to which they responded that when dug in, they would make a racket, that would attract the NVA. Then, no matter the outcome of the battle, they would either be dead, or able to go home for Tet. He decided that maybe a mission during Tet wasn't such a hot idea after all. As it turned out, nobody wanted to fight during Tet. Had the mission gone down, he would have arrived at the mission objective to find it empty. All the NVA when home for Tet as well. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-06-29 17:56 |
| #3 Just give them bad acid and then kill them from the top down. Oops, me well bad, but at least they get a glimpse of Hell afore they get there. |
| Posted by: Rhodesiafever 2010-06-29 15:36 |
| #2 Me neither. I can just see it now. Eisenhower announcing to the Germans: "No you idiots. We are coming ashore at Normandy. Patton's First Army is a charade. Ya got it? And, oh by the way we are trying to do this thing at or about the first week of June. Don't waste your U-boat resources. Focus on the Channel." Hearts and minds my a$$. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2010-06-29 14:35 |
| #1 maybe they should try not telling them when oyu aee coming more often.Never understood that anyway. |
| Posted by: chris 2010-06-29 13:48 |