enhanced_deficit
05-16-2013, 01:42 PM
Earlier Obama had escalated Afghan war, now it seems insurgents are escalating war with spring offensive that has killed over 30 US/British troops and contractors in last couple of weeks.
Updated May 16, 2013, 11:54 a.m. ET
Blast in Afghan Capital Kills 15, Including Six Americans
KABUL—Afghan insurgent group Hezb-e-Islami killed at least 15 people, including six Americans, in a suicide bombing in Kabul that the militants said was in reaction to President Hamid Karzai's recent offer of long-term bases to the U.S.
The suicide bomber targeted a military convoy Thursday morning, killing two U.S. troops, four U.S. civilian contractors and nine Afghan civilians, according to Afghan and Western officials.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324767004578486102707370518.html
In other Afghan news today:
Afghan woman recounts how US soldier killed her husband in rampage; case set for court-martial
Published May 16, 2013
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Sitting on a dirty straw mat on the parched ground of southern Afghanistan, Masooma sank deeper inside a giant black shawl. Hidden from view, her words burst forth as she told her side of what happened to her family sometime before dawn on March 11, 2012.
According to Masooma, an American soldier wearing a helmet equipped with a flashlight burst into her two-room mud home while everyone slept. He killed her husband, Dawood, punched her 7-year-old son and shoved a pistol into the mouth of his baby brother.
"We were asleep. He came in and he was shouting, saying something about Taliban, Taliban, and then he pulled my husband up. I screamed and screamed and said, 'We are not Taliban, we are not government. We are no one. Please don't hurt us,'" she said.
The soldier wasn't listening. He pointed his pistol at Masooma to quiet her and pushed her husband into the living room.
"My husband just looked back at me and said, 'I will be back.'" Seconds later she heard gunshots, she recalled, her voice cracking as she was momentarily unable to speak. Her husband was dead.
The AP also interviewed other villagers about the case, all of whom are identified by the U.S. Army as witnesses or relatives of witnesses. They included a sister and brother who were wounded and two men who were away during the killings and returned to find wives and children slain. The sister and brother told AP how they tried to run away and hide from a soldier with a gun, only to be shot — and see their neighbors and grandmother killed.
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales of Lake Tapps, Washington, is accused of the killings. Prosecutors say Bales slipped away from his remote outpost to attack two nearby villages, returning in the middle of the rampage and then for a final time soaked in blood.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/05/16/afghan-woman-recounts-how-us-soldier-killed-her-husband-in-rampage-case-set-for/
7 US Nato troops were killed few days ago.
14 May 2013
Nato Afghanistan soldiers killed in Kandahar
Four US soldiers with the Nato-led force in Afghanistan have been killed by a roadside bomb, officials say.
A government spokesman in the southern province of Kandahar said the soldiers were in a convoy in Zhari district. Several others were reported wounded.
Taliban insurgents announced the start of their spring offensive in March.
The attack is the latest in a series this month on international troops in Afghanistan.
Some 100,000 soldiers are still serving with the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan, but they are due to be withdrawn by the end of 2014.
On Monday, three Georgian soldiers serving with the Nato-led Isaf force died in an attack in the neighbouring province of Helmand.
On 1 May, three British soldiers died in a roadside bomb blast. Three days later, seven Isaf soldiers were killed in separate attacks.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22529417
Updated May 16, 2013, 11:54 a.m. ET
Blast in Afghan Capital Kills 15, Including Six Americans
KABUL—Afghan insurgent group Hezb-e-Islami killed at least 15 people, including six Americans, in a suicide bombing in Kabul that the militants said was in reaction to President Hamid Karzai's recent offer of long-term bases to the U.S.
The suicide bomber targeted a military convoy Thursday morning, killing two U.S. troops, four U.S. civilian contractors and nine Afghan civilians, according to Afghan and Western officials.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324767004578486102707370518.html
In other Afghan news today:
Afghan woman recounts how US soldier killed her husband in rampage; case set for court-martial
Published May 16, 2013
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Sitting on a dirty straw mat on the parched ground of southern Afghanistan, Masooma sank deeper inside a giant black shawl. Hidden from view, her words burst forth as she told her side of what happened to her family sometime before dawn on March 11, 2012.
According to Masooma, an American soldier wearing a helmet equipped with a flashlight burst into her two-room mud home while everyone slept. He killed her husband, Dawood, punched her 7-year-old son and shoved a pistol into the mouth of his baby brother.
"We were asleep. He came in and he was shouting, saying something about Taliban, Taliban, and then he pulled my husband up. I screamed and screamed and said, 'We are not Taliban, we are not government. We are no one. Please don't hurt us,'" she said.
The soldier wasn't listening. He pointed his pistol at Masooma to quiet her and pushed her husband into the living room.
"My husband just looked back at me and said, 'I will be back.'" Seconds later she heard gunshots, she recalled, her voice cracking as she was momentarily unable to speak. Her husband was dead.
The AP also interviewed other villagers about the case, all of whom are identified by the U.S. Army as witnesses or relatives of witnesses. They included a sister and brother who were wounded and two men who were away during the killings and returned to find wives and children slain. The sister and brother told AP how they tried to run away and hide from a soldier with a gun, only to be shot — and see their neighbors and grandmother killed.
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales of Lake Tapps, Washington, is accused of the killings. Prosecutors say Bales slipped away from his remote outpost to attack two nearby villages, returning in the middle of the rampage and then for a final time soaked in blood.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/05/16/afghan-woman-recounts-how-us-soldier-killed-her-husband-in-rampage-case-set-for/
7 US Nato troops were killed few days ago.
14 May 2013
Nato Afghanistan soldiers killed in Kandahar
Four US soldiers with the Nato-led force in Afghanistan have been killed by a roadside bomb, officials say.
A government spokesman in the southern province of Kandahar said the soldiers were in a convoy in Zhari district. Several others were reported wounded.
Taliban insurgents announced the start of their spring offensive in March.
The attack is the latest in a series this month on international troops in Afghanistan.
Some 100,000 soldiers are still serving with the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan, but they are due to be withdrawn by the end of 2014.
On Monday, three Georgian soldiers serving with the Nato-led Isaf force died in an attack in the neighbouring province of Helmand.
On 1 May, three British soldiers died in a roadside bomb blast. Three days later, seven Isaf soldiers were killed in separate attacks.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22529417