Two soldiers killed as convoy is ambushed
in Afghanistan
Kabul
- Two American servicemen were killed and one
was wounded today when a convoy of Special Forces troops was attacked in
southwestern Afghanistan, the United States military said.
The four-vehicle convoy came under fire in the province of Helmand at 4
p.m., a military statement said. One Special Forces soldier and one
airman were killed, and a third serviceman was injured. According to a
local police chief, the attackers opened fire from motorbikes, and the
American troops returned fire, wounding at least two others, in a passing
taxi.
The names of the dead are being withheld until relatives can be notified,
the military said. The latest casualties bring to 18 the number of combat
deaths suffered by United States forces in Afghanistan since October
2001.
The last previous death occurred on Dec. 21, when Sgt. Steven Checo, 22,
of New York City, was killed in a gunfight during a nighttime patrol in
the eastern province of Paktika, near the Pakistani border.
The local police chief, Mohammad Wali Khan, said he had just spent the
day with the Special Forces in his district of Sangin, near where the
attack later occurred. He blamed the attack on Taliban or Qaeda
supporters. "These things are happening all the time, in Kabul, in
Kandahar and so on. We are trying to catch these people," he
said.
The group of about 15 Special Forces troops visited Sangin district,
about 100 miles west of Kandahar, today and met with elders, the local
mayor and security officials, he said speaking by satellite
telephone.
As the Americans were preparing to leave, the police chief said he
pressed them to accept a police escort, which they did as far as the
district border.
The attack occurred in the next district when the Americans were on their
own, he said.
In the neighboring province of Oruzgan, meanwhile, American special
forces and Afghan troops were battling today against a 40-strong group of
Taliban who were thought to be responsible for the killing on Thursday of
a foreign worker for the Red Cross.
American forces called in airstrikes during the battle, a military
spokeswoman said today. F-16 jets bombed the area when two Apache
helicopters came under fire, the spokeswoman said.
The fighting broke out in the morning as hundreds of Afghan troops
arrived from Kandahar and central Oruzgan to chase down the Taliban
group.
By midafternoon Afghan officials said they had killed four of the
militants and captured seven.
The militants are a group led by the Taliban commanders Mullah Bradar and
Mullah Dadullah, according to the governor of Oruzgan, Jan
Mohammad.
In a telephone interview, he said his troops had overrun the base of the
group and found water, tents and vehicles. Local villagers had said the
group had arrived in the area seven days ago.
On Thursday the group had set up a roadblock, holding up cars and robbing
passengers. When they stopped the Red Cross convoy of cars, they pulled
out the lone foreigner and, after checking for orders by radio, shot
him.
In an interview Friday with the Pashtu-language service of the British
Broadcasting Company, Mullah Dadullah virtually admitted responsibility
for the killing. He boasted that his men had set up a roadblock in the
area and that they had arrested 65 Afghans and captured and killed two
Americans. "We are fighting against those Jews and infidels and we
will fight jihad against them and we will kick them out," he said.
-- New York Times
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