French Troops Ambushed in Afghanistan

By BJ

While the news of the last week and a half has allowed all of the old Cold Warriors a chance to re-live their glory days, this morning comes with a major reminder that the hot wars Bush started under the "War on Terror" theme are still ongoing, and in the case of Afghanistan, gathering steam.

Ten French soldiers have been killed in an ambush by Taleban fighters east of the Afghan capital, Kabul, the French president's office has confirmed.

A further 21 French soldiers were wounded in the attack - the heaviest loss of troops France has suffered since deploying to Afghanistan in 2002.

. . .

The ambush came amid signs of deteriorating security in Afghanistan.

Taleban fighters have become more active near Kabul

Despite increased security in Kabul, two rockets were fired on the city overnight, landing close to the Isaf headquarters.

In the southern province of Kandahar a Nato patrol was struck by a roadside bomb.

And in the south-eastern province of Khost six suicide bombers were killed while attacking a Nato military base, Camp Salerno, Nato says.

This comes a month after militants stormed a US outpost near the Pakistan border, also with relatively heavy causalities on the coalition side. And this post by Pat Lang describes a "disaster waiting to happen" on another under-resourced outpost in the border area.

Maybe its all just a karmic reminder of the results of the last time we decided to arm and train a guerilla force to kill Russians.

Comments

[wert]

Then there's this story from last week, which pretty much nobody else has run.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7562905.stm