God Bless those brave men who lost their lives in the battle of Nuristan on October 3rd. They will not be forgotten.
Long War Journal - Bill Roggio
The US military now claims that more than 100 enemy fighters were killed during the Oct. 3 assault on two joint Afghan and US outposts in Nuristan province. The military also backed away from its previous statement that a “Nuristani tribal militia” conducted the attack and said the attack was a collaborative effort by multiple extremist groups.
Several days ago, more than 300 enemy fighters launched the attack on the two remote outposts in the district of Kamdish, just 10 miles from the Pakistani border, after organizing at a nearby mosque and a village.
The US military is now claiming that more than one-third of the assault force was killed while US and Afghan forces repelled the attack. Initially, the US had said “several” fighters were killed, but various press accounts put the number at between 20 to 50 fighters killed.
“A more detailed battlefield assessment following the Oct. 3 attack in Nuristan has determined that enemy forces suffered more than 100 dead during the well-coordinated defense — significantly higher losses than originally thought,” the US military said in a press release.
The attack, which resulted in eight US soldiers and upwards of seven Afghan police killed, and the capture of a district police chief and 13 policemen, was the largest loss of US troops in a single battle since last year’s battle in Wanat, also in Nuristan.
Today’s disclosure of enemy casualties marks a departure from a recent policy by the US military and the International Security Assistance Force, which had maintained that reporting on the number of enemy killed during combat was counterproductive and the command would no longer provide estimates to the media or in press releases.
In addition, there are reports that the Taliban have been planning attacks on Nuristan for quite sometime and the well-coordinated attack by 300+ Taliban was in the works for almost a year.
Nuristan Violence Part of a Years-Long Campaign?
Related posts:
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- Operation Moshtarak: NATO begins HUGE offensive on Taliban
- Afghan Official: Taliban Using Human Shields
- HUGE: Taliban #1 killed
- Taliban attack musicians at Afghan wedding
- Taliban Car Bomber Kills 5 in Afghan Capital
- Afghanistan: Six Taliban killed by US coalition troops
- Taliban mutilate Afghan farmer for voting
- Taliban leader killed in Pakistan? 14 dead in missile strike
- Officials: Taliban Kill 30 Afghans After Stopping Bus
