KABUL, July 13, 2009
2 Marines Killed in Afghan Bomb Blast
3rd U.S. Service Member Dies of Wounds; Americans Being Killed in Afghanistan at Record Pace
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A suspected pro-Taliban fighter sits on steps in the provincial jail in Pul-e-Khumri, Baghlan province of Afghanistan, July 12, 2009. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky)
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HM3 Simon Trujillo, a medic from Dallas, Texas, attached to the U.S. Marines from the 2nd MEB, 1st Battalion 5th Marines, mans the company's radio inside a compound in the Nawa district of Afghanistan's Helmand province Saturday, July 11, 2009. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
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A bomb blast killed two U.S. Marines in Afghanistan's dangerous south, where thousands of American troops have deployed in a massive operation to oust Taliban fighters from the country's opium poppy region, officials said Sunday.
Some 4,000 Marines moved into Helmand province this month, the largest Marine operation in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S. invasion. They have met little head-on resistance but remain vulnerable to guerrilla tactics like suicide and roadside bombs.
"These terrorist attacks are hard to prevent, can be carried out by a few individuals, and do not require a military force capable of confronting the Marines," said Arturo Munoz, an expert on the tribal environment in Helmand province with the Washington-based RAND Corp.
"I would expect the Taliban to avoid pitched battles with the Marines in order to avoid a large number of casualties," he said. "This does not mean they will avoid violence."
The two Marines were killed Saturday in Helmand, but military officials did not release any other details nor give a specific location. The military initially reported four Marines died but later corrected the figure to two, saying the deaths were mistakenly double-counted.
The American casualties come after eight British deaths in Helmand in a 24-hour period ending Friday, triggering debate in Britain about its role in Afghanistan. Britain has now lost more troops in Afghanistan than in Iraq.
In an interview broadcast Sunday, President Barack Obama called Britain's contribution critically important and said U.S. and British troops face a difficult summer ahead of elections in Afghanistan late next month.
"We've got to get through elections," Mr. Obama told Sky News. "The most important thing we can do is to combine our military efforts with effective diplomacy and development, so that Afghans feel a greater stake and have a greater capacity to secure their country."
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan will help keep extremist groups from launching attacks inside Britain. And he told Afghan President Hamid Karzai in a telephone call Sunday that Britain would stand "shoulder-to-shoulder with the people of Afghanistan for the long haul," according to a statement by the Afghan presidency.
But in an editorial Sunday, The Observer newspaper predicted the British public will soon decide the war is not worth the casualties.
"Lives saved by bringing soldiers home will seem a surer benefit than the unproven hypothesis of preventing terrorism with a war thousands of miles away," the newspaper said.
Another American service member died Friday in the U.S. of wounds suffered in Afghanistan in June, said Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, who confirmed the deaths of the two Marines.
The three deaths bring to 104 the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan this year, a record pace. Last year 151 U.S. troops died in the country. Overall, 193 international troops have died in Afghanistan this year, according to an Associated Press count based on official announcements.
Mr. Obama ordered 21,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan earlier this year to help put down an increasingly violent Taliban insurgency. Some 10,000 Marines and 4,000 soldiers from the Stryker Brigade - the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division based in Fort Lewis, Wash. - are deploying in the south, the Taliban's spiritual birthplace and stronghold.
The troops will help provide security for the Aug. 20 election, when Afghans will choose a president and provincial councils, and help train army and police units that the U.S. hopes one day can provide security for the country. By fall, a record 68,000 U.S. troops will be in Afghanistan.
Violence flared elsewhere around the country over the weekend, illustrating again that security is deteriorating. At least 22 people were killed, including seven police officers, officials reported on Sunday.
© MMIX, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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See all 42 CommentsObama is the enemy.
No recognition made to these soldiers and what they do and live with every day. Every day, except that is for the ones who die and some would say that they are the lucky ones. That would be said by those who suffer such increasing mental anguish that they are unable to extinguish the horrors from their minds long after returning home.
It doesn't matter what your opinion is and which side you walk, that is no excuse to minimize their importance and sacrafice in all of this.
This article is about their sacrafice, their death and the loss suffered by their family, friends and this country, not your politics or malignant opinions.
Obama is the enemy.
Oh wait...
Semper Fi!
Just ignore all these fools guys. None of them have anything positive to say ever. They are un-American mental midgets and cowards. They are internet terrorists who come post on these boards just to taunt you. They are boring. Never an original thought. They just repeat the radically wrong ideology talking points over and over. The neo-cons are full of lies and contempt for this nation.
by gravyboat4000 July 12, 2009 8:30 AM PDT
Rowdy = anti-American, useless waste of time on these boards.
Your intention here is clearly to intimate that these deaths are somehow connected to Obama's policies. Another lie from you.
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Gravypants.... If the Marines weren't in Afghanistan - they wouldn't have died in Afghanistan. Duh! Now blame it on the blundering, idiotic mistake that Bush made. Now respond by saying that Obama 'inherited' this fiasco..... Now explain the 'change'.
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You want to blame Obama for these deaths? We were attacked on 9/11 and the Bush administration went after al Queda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, and rightfully so. They then abandonded Afganistan to invade Iraq on the basis of lies. Our Marines are re-taking ground that was taken when we first went into Afghanistan, because troops were moved from Afghanistan to Iraq, and the Taliban came back.
Unless Obama manages something to top a war crime.
,,Matter of fact though,,,it's already a tie,,,
,,,,both Bush and Obama are war criminals,,,,
But only the left can see it,,,so they're home free.
Maybe a tie-breaker IQ test,,,with ten-days advance
warning so Bush can dry out first and practice "nuclear"
in case they try crossing him up by changing the test.
Dems cant lose, Bush is where he is as he is and
not about to move up no matter what Obama pulls.
Dont want people readin' bout no ragamuffin doing their elite,,,
General McMullin:,,,No no, it is'nt THAT,,, it's just that
all dead troops are getting to look alike,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,Let me rephrase that,,"
4 Baghdad churches bombed in 24 hours as Iraq spirals out of control.
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But where it really mattered, we were sadly lacking in guts and sense of sacrifice. Bush told us to "go shopping"... the wealthy got tax cuts, Halliburton got no-bid contracts and the recruiters went after the kids who had no future.
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Now we're up to our elbows in the Afghan tar-baby and have no goals, no policy and no idea where it will all end.
Your boyz in that last Administration set all of these balls rolling - to include a requirement for our continued presence in Afghanistan.
There is a probability that we wouldn't have to be there, if your criminality didn't include letting Osama bin Laden get away 'cuz Afghanistan didn't have enough oil or a close enough proximity to Israel to keep Bush, Cheney, & PNAC, LLP's attention.
You own this mess, just like you own the mess you made out of the economy.
But the Obama Administration remains intent upon protecting the poppies so that the Afghan farmers and local drug lords can reap the benefits of what purports to be a bumper crop.
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Not to mention that Obama is concerned about his own personal stash!
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Lies. Don't pretend you quoted something from this story, and then comment on your lie, with more lies.
Loser.
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