thedrifter
06-15-08, 08:20 AM
Posted on Sun, Jun. 15, 2008
Afghan blast kills 4 Marines
Coalition troop deaths in Afghanistan surpassed those in Iraq for May.
By David Zucchino and M. Karim Faiez
Los Angeles Times
HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan - In the worst attack on coalition forces in Afghanistan this year, four Marines from a unit based at Twentynine Palms, Calif., were killed by a roadside bomb yesterday, the military reported. A fifth Marine was wounded in the attack.
Military spokesmen provided no details of the bombing pending notification of next of kin. The Marines, from the Second Battalion, Seventh Marine Regiment, arrived in Afghanistan in April to help train struggling Afghan national police units in southwestern Afghanistan.
The attack came a day after U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced that in May, the monthly total of coalition combat deaths in Afghanistan had exceeded the total in Iraq for the first time.
The casualties brought the U.S. death toll in Afghanistan to at least 44 this year. The previous worst attack in 2008 killed two Americans.
The roadside bomb struck a humvee in Farah province, where the Marine battalion operates bases in conjunction with Afghan police.
The Taliban have grown increasingly bold in recent months, especially in the south and west and near the extremists' former stronghold, Kandahar.
On Friday, in a sophisticated attack that a Taliban spokesman said had been planned for months, insurgents blew open the gates of a prison in Kandahar. The jailbreak freed 870 prisoners, among them 390 Taliban members, Sayed Afgh Saqib, the police chief of Kandahar province, said in a telephone interview yesterday.
A truck packed with explosives detonated, destroying the front gate and a police post, killing all officers inside. At the same time, an explosion ripped through a rear wall, Afghan officials said.
Moments later, rockets fired from inside the compound struck an upper prison floor, causing it to collapse, said Mohammed Qasim Hashimzai, Afghanistan's deputy justice minister.
Officials had no reason to believe the militants had assistance from anyone inside the prison, Hashimzai said. But as a precaution, the prison's director, Abdul Qabir, was being investigated for any evidence of his involvement, he said.
At least nine police officers and several prisoners were killed, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.
In a telephone interview from an undisclosed location, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, who said he was a spokesman for the Taliban, said the attackers included 30 men on motorbikes and two suicide bombers. Ahmadi said the assault had been planned for two months.
There was no word yesterday whether any of the escaped Taliban were members of the group's top leadership.
Ellie
Afghan blast kills 4 Marines
Coalition troop deaths in Afghanistan surpassed those in Iraq for May.
By David Zucchino and M. Karim Faiez
Los Angeles Times
HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan - In the worst attack on coalition forces in Afghanistan this year, four Marines from a unit based at Twentynine Palms, Calif., were killed by a roadside bomb yesterday, the military reported. A fifth Marine was wounded in the attack.
Military spokesmen provided no details of the bombing pending notification of next of kin. The Marines, from the Second Battalion, Seventh Marine Regiment, arrived in Afghanistan in April to help train struggling Afghan national police units in southwestern Afghanistan.
The attack came a day after U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced that in May, the monthly total of coalition combat deaths in Afghanistan had exceeded the total in Iraq for the first time.
The casualties brought the U.S. death toll in Afghanistan to at least 44 this year. The previous worst attack in 2008 killed two Americans.
The roadside bomb struck a humvee in Farah province, where the Marine battalion operates bases in conjunction with Afghan police.
The Taliban have grown increasingly bold in recent months, especially in the south and west and near the extremists' former stronghold, Kandahar.
On Friday, in a sophisticated attack that a Taliban spokesman said had been planned for months, insurgents blew open the gates of a prison in Kandahar. The jailbreak freed 870 prisoners, among them 390 Taliban members, Sayed Afgh Saqib, the police chief of Kandahar province, said in a telephone interview yesterday.
A truck packed with explosives detonated, destroying the front gate and a police post, killing all officers inside. At the same time, an explosion ripped through a rear wall, Afghan officials said.
Moments later, rockets fired from inside the compound struck an upper prison floor, causing it to collapse, said Mohammed Qasim Hashimzai, Afghanistan's deputy justice minister.
Officials had no reason to believe the militants had assistance from anyone inside the prison, Hashimzai said. But as a precaution, the prison's director, Abdul Qabir, was being investigated for any evidence of his involvement, he said.
At least nine police officers and several prisoners were killed, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.
In a telephone interview from an undisclosed location, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, who said he was a spokesman for the Taliban, said the attackers included 30 men on motorbikes and two suicide bombers. Ahmadi said the assault had been planned for two months.
There was no word yesterday whether any of the escaped Taliban were members of the group's top leadership.
Ellie