GI SPECIAL 5K2:
[Thanks to Mark
Shapiro, who sent this in.]
"As
Afghan And Foreign Troops Fought The Insurgents
Around Gulistan This Week, The Rebels Did Not Flee"
"Instead, They Gained More Ground"
November 02, 2007
Kelly Cryderman, CanWest News Service
The Taliban have
briefly occupied a number of isolated district
centres across the centre and south of the country
in the past two years, but usually flee the area as
soon as Afghan army and foreign troops arrive at the
scene.
However, as Afghan and
foreign troops fought the insurgents around Gulistan
this week, the rebels did not flee.
Instead, they gained
more ground and captured the neighbouring district
of Bakwa on Wednesday.
"Gulistan district is
still controlled by the Taliban," Ikramuddin Yawar,
the police chief for western Afghanistan, told
Reuters. "We want assistance from NATO to support
us from the air."
MORE:
Occupation Command Tricked:
Diversionary Attack On Gulistan Leads To Loss Of
Bakwa;
Resistance Main Force Of 400 Overruns District
Center
November 01, 2007
Sharifuddin Sharafiyar, Reuters & By FISNIK ABRASHI
(AP)
HERAT, Afghanistan --
Taliban rebels have overrun a district centre in
western Afghanistan as fighting took place in a
nearby area captured earlier this week, a provincial
official said on Thursday.
The Taliban have
massed in unusually large numbers in the last week
in the west and near the main southern city of
Kandahar, challenging assertions by Afghan
government and foreign troops that they can rout the
rebels in any direct engagement.
Some 400 Taliban
fighters took over the district centre of Gulistan
in the western province of Farah on Monday. While
Afghan and NATO-led forces were battling to take it
back, the insurgents took over the neighbouring
district centre of Bakwa.
"Bakwa district centre
fell into the hands of the Taliban in an attack
yesterday afternoon," said Maolavi Yahya, the
district chief of neighbouring Delaram.
"The Taliban wanted to keep Afghan and foreign
troops busy (in Gulistan) as another group of
Taliban tactically overran the district centre.
"During the
confrontation 14 Taliban insurgents and two Afghan
police were killed and the Taliban set the district
centre building on fire," said Yahya.
Canadian forces in Kandahar said it was one of the
most organised Taliban offensives they had seen and
said it appeared to be aimed at a move towards the
city.
Prominent Taliban
leader Mullah Mansour Dadullah vowed the insurgents
would extend their fighting to the north of
Afghanistan during the winter.
"Our operations are
blazing across the southern provinces, and we shall
reach the northern provinces in the same manner," he
said in a video posted on the Internet on Wednesday.
A large number of
Taliban have crossed into Farah from neighboring
Helmand province and were still in control of
Gulistan district.
Police have battled
militants for three days in the area, and several
guerrillas were killed, said Baryalai Khan, a
spokesman for the provincial police chief.
MORE:
The Arghandab Offensive:
"Even If The Taleban Have Now Retreated, It Has Been
A Show Of Strength Which Will Not Be Lost On The
Afghan Population"
1 November 2007 BBC
News & By FISNIK ABRASHI (AP) & Jon Hemming, Reuters
& AP
The
BBC’s Alix Kroeger in Kabul says the fighting
outside Kandahar city has now largely ended. Three
policemen and one Afghan soldier also died.
But
even if the Taleban have now retreated, it has been
a show of strength which will not be lost on the
Afghan population.
Many Taleban fighters
escaped from Arghandab district, only 12 km (8
miles) from Kandahar, city on Wednesday night.
On Wednesday, a
provincial police chief said up to 250 militants
were surrounded in the area. There was no sign of
militants in the village streets Thursday.
It
was closest the Taleban have come to Kandahar city
since 2001.
Arghandab district
lies just 12km (seven miles) north of the city and
is an area of walled-off by pomegranate orchards and
deep irrigation trenches.
An
American aid worker based in Arghandab described it
as perfect terrain for an insurgency, terrible for a
standing army.
It
was where the Mujahideen held off the Soviets in the
1980s, marking the beginning of the defeat of the
Soviet invasion.
Arghandab has been an
anti-Taleban stronghold for years, but two weeks ago
the pro-government local leader, Mullah Naqib, died
of a heart attack.
Earlier this year the
Taleban tried to kill him with a roadside bomb.
Our correspondent says
his death has left a vacuum in the command of
pro-government forces in Kandahar.
Four days ago the
Taleban launched their offensive.
IRAQ WAR REPORTS
Three Airmen Killed Near Balad Air Base
November 2, 2007
Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory Release Number
2007-1102-01 & AFP
SOUTHWEST ASIA - Three
Airmen were killed Nov. 1 while performing combat
operations in the vicinity of Balad Air Base, Iraq.
All three were
assigned to the Air Force Office of Special
Investigations at Balad AB.
The US military’s
overall losses in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion
have now reached 3,848 according to an AFP tally
based on Pentagon figures.
The
Pentagon figures also take into account soldiers who
die after leaving Iraq for treatment.
Two
U.S. Soldiers Killed In Nineveh;
Two
More Wounded
November 1, 2007
Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory RELEASE No.
20071101-01
TIKRIT, Iraq – Two
Task Force Iron Soldiers were killed by an explosion
near their vehicle while conducting operations in
Nineveh province Oct. 31.
Additionally, two
Soldiers were wounded and transported to a Coalition
medical facility for treatment.
U.S. Soldier Killed In Salah Ad Din
11.1.07 Public Affairs
Office, Camp Victory RELEASE No. 20071101-10
TIKRIT, Iraq – A Task
Force Iron Soldier was killed by an explosion near
his vehicle
while conducting
operations in Salah ad Din province Oct. 31.
IED
Kills Polish Soldier, Three Wounded
02 Nov 2007 Reuters &
By Hussein Kadhim, McClatchy Newspapers & BBC
A roadside bomb hit a
Polish patrol, killing one soldier and wounding
three others in near Al-Furat neighborhood in
midtown Diwaniyah city, 180 km (112 miles) south of
Baghdad, a Polish military spokesman said.
Corporal Andrzej
Filipek was killed when his convoy struck an
improvised explosive device (IED) while patrolling
the streets of Diwaniya.
Massachusetts Soldier Killed In Baghdad
Army Pfc. Kenneth J.
Iwasinski, 22, of West Springfield, Mass., died Oct.
14, 2007, in Baghdad when an explosive detonated
near his vehicle. (AP Photo/Family Photo)
Soldier From Conroe Is Killed While Fighting In Iraq
Nov. 2, 2007 Houston
Chronicle
A Conroe soldier has
died fighting in the Iraq war, according to a
published report in the Courier of Montgomery
County.
Army Spc. Brandon W.
Smitherman, 21, was a graduate of Montgomery High
School. Family members did not know how he died, but
said he was stationed in Mosul, Iraq, the newspaper
reported..
Sturgeon Bay Soldier Killed In Iraq
November 1, 2007
Wisconsin Newspapers
STURGEON BAY — Louis
Griese was killed by a roadside bomb while serving
his third tour of duty in Iraq with the Army’s 101st
Airborne Division, his mother said Wednesday.
Susan Frihart of
Sturgeon Bay said her son was killed Tuesday while
on patrol in Iraq.
Griese’s father was in
the Army, and the young man wanted to be like his
father, Frihart said. He grew up in Algoma and
Sturgeon Bay and graduated from Sturgeon Bay High
School in the mid-1990s, she said.
There have been 80 military personnel from Wisconsin
killed in the Iraq war.
Griese served two
tours in Iraq before heading over for his third a
few months ago, she said.
He also served in
Hawaii and Korea. He was stationed in Fort Campbell,
Ky., where he lived with his wife, Stephany, and
baby daughter, Skylar.
The birth of Griese’s
daughter four months ago made it difficult for
Griese to leave for this tour, Frihart said.
Martinsville Man Killed In Iraq
November 1, 2007 By
SUSAN ELZEY, Register & Bee staff writer
The latest messages
posted on Pfc. Rush "Mickey" Jenkins’ MySpace page
send prayers and best wishes to his family as they
grieve his death.
Just below those
comments are more messages wishing him a happy
birthday.
Jenkins was killed on
his 22nd birthday Tuesday in Iraq. Jenkins’ family
is from the Grassy Creek community of Henry County,
and he was a 2004 graduate of Magna Vista High
School.
His brother, Sgt.
George "Alex" Jenkins, the spokesman for the family,
is unavailable for comment until he arrives home
from where he is stationed in the military,
according to Bassett Funeral Service spokesman Eric
Hunt.
Jenkins, who joined
the service 18 months ago, was killed in an ambush,
Hunt said.
The Martinsville
Bulletin reported Thursday that he was killed when
the Bradley fighting vehicle he was riding in ran
over an embedded IED, or improvised explosive
device.
All the people riding
in the back of the vehicle also were killed, the
article stated.
Jenkins served with
the 3rd Infantry Division.
Jenkins’ body will
first be flown to Dover, Del., and then to
Greensboro, N.C., where the funeral service will
pick it up. Online condolences to the family may be
left at www.bassettfuneralservice.com.
U.S. Copter Fire Kills Collaborator Cops
October 31, 2007 By
KIM GAMEL -- Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD: U.S.
helicopters opened fire after a ground patrol came
under attack southeast of Baghdad on Wednesday, and
Iraqi police said three officers were killed and one
wounded in the strike.
The fighting occurred
near Salman Pak, a predominantly Sunni area that has
been the subject of a U.S. military campaign aimed
at routing insurgents from rural strongholds and
disrupting the flow of weapons to the capital.
Ground forces called
for air support after coming under small-arms fire
near the city, some 15 miles southeast of Baghdad, a
U.S. military official said, speaking on condition
of anonymity because the information hasn’t been
formally released.
A U.S.-Iraqi joint
security station in the area had come under fire
three times earlier in the day, the official said.
A local policeman, who
also declined to be identified because he wasn’t
authorized to release the information, claimed three
officers were killed and one wounded when an Iraqi
patrol vehicle was hit in the airstrike.
"Death Toll For American Troops In October Fell To
39, The Lowest Level Since March 2006"
"It’s Temporary Because The United States Cannot
Maintain This Number Of Troops In The Areas Where
They Are In"
November 2, 2007 By
Joshua Partlow and Naseer Nouri, Washington Post
Foreign Service [Excerpts]
The death toll for
American troops in October fell to 39, the lowest
level since March 2006, and the eighth-lowest total
in 56 months of fighting, according to the Web site
icasualties.org, which tracks military fatalities.
"My feeling is that
this decrease in the violence is temporary," said
Saleh al-Mutlak, a secular Sunni who leads the Iraqi
National Dialogue Front political party.
"It’s temporary
because the United States cannot maintain this
number of troops in the areas where they are in."
"Violence has not been
reduced. "This year was the bloodiest for all of
the people in Kirkuk," said Hewa Fatih Abdullah
al-Shwani, a Kurdish businessman who lives north of
the city.
He used to travel
south to Baghdad and Basra to coordinate cement
shipments, but now deals exclusively with Kurdish
colleagues or arranges for his merchandise to come
from neighboring Iran and Turkey.
"I
do not see any improvement because terrorists keep
changing their plans," he said. "When you arrest a
thousand, you will find another thousand more
because of unemployment, mistakes, chaos and the
weakness of the central government."
MORE:
Like The Man Said, U.S. Occupation "Can’t Maintain
This Number Of Troops"
In
Diyala and Salahaddin Provinces, Command "Pulling
Out One Of Its Brigades (About 3,500 Soldiers) In
December Without Replacing It"
Militants have infiltrated both the Army and the
police and continue to tip off insurgents to
imminent operations, say US officers.
November 02, 2007 By
Sam Dagher, Correspondent of The Christian Science
Monitor & Gordon Lubold, Staff writer of The
Christian Science Monitor
The
end of the US surge is in sight here.
In two key central
Iraqi provinces, American units will soon reduce
their forces and modify their role in a region that
is a microcosm of the fractured nation.
This region is home to one of Iraq’s three major oil
refineries.
The
US is pulling out one of its brigades (about 3,500
soldiers) in December without replacing it.
As the Americans
leave, the US plans to give Iraqis more
responsibility, an overall strategy the US will
employ as it pulls out five brigades – the bulk of
the surge forces – by next summer.
"Are they ready to go it alone? No. We understand
that," says one senior US Defense official. "But if
you keep them in spring practice, they will never
gain confidence." [Below,
the reporter contradicts this babbling idiocy by
reporting they have enough confidence to help the
resistance fight the occupation. T]
The region includes
Diyala and Salahaddin provinces, which have large
Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish populations.
Salahaddin’s capital,
Tikrit, is Saddam Hussein’s hometown, and residual
support for the deceased dictator can be seen spray
painted on walls throughout the city ("Long live the
hero Saddam").
US plans for the area
remain intentionally murky, and commanders say they
may send another US unit to the area if they need to
as they redraw the boundary lines that define areas
of responsibility for their units there.
In the meantime, the
Iraqis will still have the help of an American unit
on standby. As the 3rd Brigade Combat
Team of the 1st Cavalry Division, deployed to Diyala
Province, returns home, the 4th Stryker Brigade
Combat Team of the 2nd Division, a "surge" unit
already deployed nearby, will assume a greater swath
of territory for now.
[Translation: spread
thin, 4th Stryker Brigade will be a
tempting target of opportunity in a huge,
well-populated, hostile area. Search-and-avoid
would be the most prudent response.]
US
commanders north of Baghdad are wary about
publicizing that there will be fewer forces in the
region, even though, under Army Gen. David
Petraeus’s plan, announced earlier this year in
Washington, the US will reduce surge forces by as
many as 20,000 by summer. [Right. A huge surprise
for the resistance. They would have never heard of
the Petraeus plan "announced earlier this year in
Washington." Fuck no.]
The
outgoing senior US commander there told reporters at
the Pentagon last week that there would be a net
loss of a brigade headquarters – equivalent to about
three battalions.
"After it is all said
and done, and the dust settles, I will have a little
less force," says Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon,
commander of Multinational Division-North. General
Mixon’s 15-month tour just ended.
["After it is all said and done, and the dust
settles, I will have a little less force," says Gen.
George Armstrong Custer, commander of the 7th
Cavalry.]
And
militants have infiltrated both the Army and the
police and continue to tip off insurgents to
imminent operations, say US officers.
On Tuesday, for
example, about 450 Iraqi soldiers and policemen and
60 US soldiers, backed by heavy US air support, made
their way to villages in the remote northeastern
corner of Salahaddin.
They carried a list of 12 militant-cell leaders they
hoped to capture.
But
when they got there, all they found were women and
children: no militants.
In one case, a woman
was questioned about the whereabouts of her sons.
She told an Iraqi police officer that they had gone
fishing and would be back in two weeks.
The Iraqi officer was
not impressed. "Say hello to your sons and tell them
sooner or later we will get them," he told her,
adding, "Why do you have these weapons in your
home?"
"To hunt policemen,"
quipped another officer standing nearby.
The woman told him not
to say such things. "A person who has not done
anything is not afraid," she said, standing outside
her mud-brick hut as her two tearful daughters and
wheelchair-bound son sat nearby.
The
Iraqi police officers threatened to take away her
handicapped son unless she confessed to the
whereabouts of her other sons.
Ultimately, they left the one son alone but rounded
up all the military-age men they could find in the
village and nearby villages that had been on their
target lists.
They detained 39 men in total for questioning, but
none of the ones on their list.
Army Lt. Col. David Hsu, who leads the US Army team
advising the Iraqis and accompanied them that day,
says it’s very conceivable that the people on the
wanted list were tipped off by Iraqi soldiers.
"It’s a huge concern," he says.
"There are elements in Army, police, and (concerned
local citizens) that work with insurgents."
"Concerned local
citizens" is a catch-all phrase that US forces use
to describe tribal leaders and civilians who may
have previously sympathized with insurgents or
collaborated with them but have now declared their
support for US and Iraqi forces.
BEEN ON THE JOB TOO LONG:
COME ON HOME, NOW
9.10.07: US soldiers
return to their base following a night patrol along
the outskirts of Baghdad. (AFP/David Furst)
AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS
Two
Foreign Occupation Soldiers Killed, Three Wounded In
Korangal Valley;
Nationality Not Announced
11/02/07 The Canadian
Press
KABUL, Afghanistan -
Officials in Afghanistan say insurgents ambushed
NATO-led forces in the eastern part of the country
leaving two alliance troops dead and three others
wounded.
A NATO statement says
the eastern clash occurred in Korangal Valley in
Kunar province late Thursday after insurgents
ambushed a joint NATO-Afghan foot patrol.
The wounded troops
were transported to a military medical facility and
were in stable condition.
NATO did not identify
the nationalities of the dead and wounded soldiers.
Most of the troops in
that part of the country are American.
Polish Soldier Wounded In Afghanistan
Oct. 31, 2007 United
Press International
WARSAW: A Polish
soldier serving with NATO’s international forces in
Afghanistan was injured when a convoy he was
traveling in ran into a land mine.
Maj. Miroslaw Ochyra,
a spokesman for the Polish military contingent, said
the officer -- whose identity was given as Capt.
Artur R. -- suffered leg injuries in an explosion of
a land mine trap, Polish Radio reported Wednesday.
The officer was being
treated in a hospital in Salerno and doctors say his
condition is stable and his injuries are not
life-threatening.
Canadian Soldier Wounded As Afghan Situation Remains
Tense
November 02, 2007
Kelly Cryderman, CanWest News Service
KANDAHAR AIRFIELD,
Afghanistan - A Canadian soldier was wounded in an
explosion Friday as he patrolled a district north of
Kandahar City, where heavy fighting has been seen in
recent days.
Several hours after
the attack, the soldier was listed in fair condition
and was recovering at Kandahar Airfield.
The suspected
improvised explosive device - a homemade bomb - went
off during a patrol 14 kilometres northeast of the
Arghandab district centre, which serves as the
government and police headquarters for the area.
The soldier, who was
not identified by the military, was travelling in a
Leopard, a German-made battle tank.
