Afghan War: 60 civilians killed/wounded in US drone strike; 2 US troops killed by IED

[enhanced_deficit]

US strike targeting Taliban commander causes civilian casualties

9 Jan 2020
The UN said the months of July, August and September in 2019 saw 'an unprecedented number of civilian casualties' [Parwiz/Reuters]

More than 60 civilians were killed or wounded in a US drone attack targeting a top Taliban splinter-group commander in the western Afghanistan province of Herat, local officials said.

aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/strike-targeting-taliban-commander-civilian-casualties-200109165736421.html




2 American troops killed by roadside bomb in Afghanistan

January 11, 2020
Two U.S. service members were killed and two others injured when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said in a statement Saturday. The Taliban immediately took responsibility for the attack.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/2-american-troops-killed-by-roadside-bomb-in-afghanistan-2020-01-11/

 

[Sammy]

Why are we still in Afghanistan?

 

[enhanced_deficit]

Why are we still in Afghanistan?

Was that rhetorical question or you really don't know?

If it's the latter, are you familiar with Deep Neocons' Prager School of Thought?


The Immorality of Leaving Iraq and Afghanistan
By Dennis Prager

 

[AngryCanadian]

Why are we still in Afghanistan?

"National Security Interests"
Remember its all about the resources

 

[enhanced_deficit]

"National Security Interests"
Remember its all about the resources

But Afghanistan has no oil, so 'take the oil' type strategies shouldn't apply there?


In latest news :

Infiltrator who killed two US service members in insider attack released from Afghan prison

Maj. Robert J. Marchanti II, 48, of Baltimore, in an undated photo. Marchanti, a Maryland National Guardsman, was killed in the attack on the Afghan Interior Ministry in Kabul on Feb. 25, 2012. Abdul Saboor, who killed Marchanti in 2012, had been sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2016, but was set free Friday, Afghan officials said.

U.S. ARMY


By J.P. LAWRENCE | STARS AND STRIPES Published: June 1, 2020
KABUL, Afghanistan — An infiltrator who killed two U.S. officers in one of the Afghan War’s highest-profile insider attacks has walked free from a Parwan province prison, Afghan officials said Monday.

Abdul Saboor, who killed Air Force Lt. Col. John Darin Loftis and Army Maj. Robert Marchanti II in 2012, had been sentenced to 20 years in prison but was set free Friday after four years of time served, officials said.

Saboor’s attack on two U.S. advisers in a government building in one of the most heavily fortified areas of Kabul led to significant restrictions on how the U.S. worked with Afghan partners, an adviser from that time said.

“We had to rewrite all of the rules for engagement for (us) as advisers,” retired Navy Capt. James Muir, an American adviser who oversaw the advisers killed in the attack, said in a phone interview.
“After that, people were more conservative about advising … it took the wind out of the sails of a lot of people,” said Muir, who helmed the Kabul office of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Hands program, which consisted of U.S. military advisers trained in local languages.

The slayings prompted the United States and several coalition countries to remove hundreds of advisers who worked in government ministries in Afghanistan’s capital.
Further changes that year included increased vetting for Afghan security forces and the requirement that an armed soldier, called a “guardian angel,” accompany U.S. advisers when meeting with Afghans.

Air Force Lt. Col. John Darin Loftis was killed Feb. 25, 2012, by Abdul Saboor in an insider attack in Afghanistan. Saboor, who had been sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2016, was set free Friday, officials said.
COURTESY OF THE LOFTIS FAMILY

stripes.com/news/middle-east/infiltrator-who-killed-two-us-service-members-in-insider-attack-released-from-afghan-prison-1.631991

Published May 25
South Carolina soldier dies in non-combat related incident in Afghanistan

An American soldier from South Carolina has died in a non-combat related incident in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense announced on Thursday.
First Lt. Trevarius Ravon Bowman, 25, of Spartanburg, S.C., died Tuesday at Bagram Air Force Base, which is the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan, The Spartanburg-Herald Journal reported.
Though officials said Bowman did not die in combat, the Department of Defense did not elaborate in its press release on the details surrounding his death, which remains under investigation, the newspaper reported.

foxnews.com/us/south-carolina-soldier-afghanistan-dies-non-combat