US Marines tracked down a band of insurgents in eastern Afghanistan and sparked a battle that left about 23 rebels and two American troops dead, the US military said yesterday, in the latest sign of a revived Taliban-led insurgency.
American warplanes also joined the five-hour clash with about 25 insurgents on Sunday evening in Laghman, a province of an eastern opium-producing region where US forces have regularly fought with militants.
Acting on intelligence about the rebels' whereabouts, US Marines "located the insurgents and an engagement ensued," a statement from the US military said. "Two US Marines were killed."
PHOTO: AFP
The names of the dead were withheld pending notification of next-of-kin.
A second statement said "two insurgents were confirmed killed and another 21 suspected dead."
There was no word on any wounded from either side.
The military said the Marines initially came under attack with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades from insurgents who split into two groups, one of which fled to a village and the other to a cave on a nearby ridge.
The two Marines died while clearing the cave after A-10 ground attack planes pounded the rebels holed up inside, the statement said. It didn't explain further.
Militants opposed to the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai have made good on pledges to ramp up their three-year-old insurgency after the melt of the winter's snow, carrying out a string of assaults and bombings that have killed dozens of Afghan and US troops and government officials.
However, they have suffered heavy casualties, particularly where American warplanes have caught them in large groups on open ground.
The Marines died days after the bloodiest fighting in Afghanistan in nine months, when US and Afghan forces including American warplanes clashed with large groups of insurgents in two southern provinces last week.
Sixty-four rebels, nine Afghan soldiers and an Afghan policeman were reported killed, while six American troops were among the wounded.
American commanders insist they are grinding the insurgents down and persuading villagers in a belt of territory along the Pakistani border to stop sheltering them.
They have also suggested that the currently 18,000-strong US-led force could be trimmed after Sept. 18 parliamentary elections supposed to crown the country's democratic rebirth, depending on the success of a reconciliation plan which has prompted a string of former Taliban allies to give up the fight.
Sunday's deaths bring to 143 the number of American troops killed in and around Afghanistan since the start of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2001, according to US Defense Department statistics. The last US soldier previously killed in action in Afghanistan died April 26 when his unit was ambushed in Uruzgan Province.
In an attempt to bring about national reconciliation, Karzai has offered an olive branch to all but a hardcore of 150 militants accused of crimes against humanity.
Former Taliban foreign minister Mullah Wakeel Ahmed Mutawakil, who was regarded as a moderate, last week urged peace talks between Kabul and the ousted regime.
The Taliban regime was toppled after it failed to surrender its "guest" al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden following the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the US.
US-led forces are still searching for bin Laden and one-eyed Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar along the rugged border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
RSS