Bombs Kill 12 in Southern Afghanistan

Rising Death Toll Leads U.S. and British to Consider Increasing Troop Levels

(AP)  Bombs killed a dozen people, including a British soldier and five children, in southern Afghanistan, authorities said Friday, as U.S. and British officials consider sending more troops to combat the growing Taliban insurgency.

The five children were among 11 people who died Friday when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle in the Spin Boldak district of southern Kandahar province near the border with Pakistan, according to police Gen. Saifullah Hakim.

The victims, all members of an extended family, were traveling to a local Muslim religious shrine for Friday prayer services, Hakim said.

Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban, and Hakim blamed the Islamic militants who plant bombs along roads in the area to target Afghan and foreign troops for Friday's blast.

"Innocent civilians are dying as a result," he said.

In London, the British Ministry of Defense announced that a British soldier was killed Thursday when a bomb exploded near a foot patrol in Gereshk, an industrial city of Helmand province where fighting has been raging this month. The soldier's death brings to 48 the number of NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan in July - the deadliest month for the international force since the war began in 2001.

The U.S. command, meanwhile, reported that Afghan and U.S. soldiers killed 10 insurgents Friday in Kunar province of eastern Afghanistan. There were no international soldiers killed but the U.S. statement made no mention of Afghan army casualties.

U.S. commanders had been expecting bigger losses since President Barack Obama ordered 21,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan this year to curb a resurgent Taliban, which was ousted from power in the U.S.-led invasion of 2001.

About 59,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan, and the number is expected to rise to at least 68,000 by the end of 2009. The total international force numbers about 91,000 troops from 42 nations.

But the rising casualty tolls have prompted U.S. and British officials to consider whether to send more troops to Afghanistan to bolster security, especially around the Aug. 20 presidential election. Britain has about 9,000 troops in Afghanistan, including 700 sent this year to augment security for the election.

The chief of the British army, Gen. Richard Dannatt, said there was a case to be made for "a short-term uplift" in troop numbers until Afghan forces are properly trained and deployed - which he said could take another 12 to 18 months. He told BBC Radio that scaling down troop levels after the Afghan election would be the "wrong thing to do."

On Thursday, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the U.S. could send more troops to Afghanistan this year than had been initially planned, although any increase would not be significant. The Obama administration had wanted to wait until the end of the year to decide whether to send more troops.

The new commander of U.S. and NATO forces, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, is nearing the end of a 60-day review of troop requirements in Afghanistan and will forward his recommendations to Washington.

Also Friday, a suspected U.S. missile strike killed at least five alleged militants in a remote area of Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan, Pakistani officials said. The U.S. has launched dozens of missile strikes in Pakistan's northwest border regions, which are used as safe havens by Taliban and al Qaeda fighters to launch attacks against American and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Two separate bombs in northwest Pakistan damaged a pair of oil tankers headed for NATO forces in Afghanistan, police said.

The attacks occurred along a major transit route for fuel and supplies headed to U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

[sean58z]

The five Children on their way to church were sacrificed by Rebels before lewd orgy. The explosion was an expression of blood lust. These Criminals experiment with illicit narcotics such as LSD, methamphetamine, tar heroin, PCP, and potent hashish during sexual rapes of Children under ten years of age. Kabul should ask Barack Obama for the latest computer system that tracks felons with satellites.

[mysteriousjz]

9/11 dwellers are the stupidest and most doofus people on this earth today. Smart, intelligent and educated people think outside the box. This is not about people of the mudhouses, riding donkeys, swimming to your shore on F16 on their backs to cause a bruise. It is about brutal and barbaric imperialism. More 9/11s have been bestowed upon people around the world. Those who think one American life, or even a bruise on an America wrist, worth the lives of thousands, are truly and gravely mistaken. History will dicatate that same people would be one day under the gun in their backyard.

[mejordelahistoria]

we are the invaders...... there is nothing more to say. Would the US have stopped it's revolution from the Brits because of the deaths of five children? this is no longer about 9-11 or furthering toby keith's carreer, it's been 8 years and a failure on the Bush administration for not finding Bin Laden nor the weapons of mass deception.

[ramos1129]

To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past," Cronkite told his audience. "To suggest we are on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory conclusion. ... It is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could. Source: Walter Cronkite on the Vietnam War, date: Unknown.
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Unless President Obama can supply compelling reasons as to why are are in Afrans that effect American interests, then Cronkite's words apply also to Afrans war and the Iraq war.

[underdogus09]

you're so easy....OIL

[underdogus09]

(CNN)"A helicopter from private US military contractor Xe crashed outside Baghdad on Friday, killing two crew members" ..again crashed? hmmm

[underdogus09]

News Flash:"U.S. fighter jet crashes in Afghanistan, 2 dead"
Crashed? mmm Stingers, Stingers, Who's Got the Stingers?
How many Stingers did the U.S. give to the mujahideen? Who else has them? More to the point, who doesn't? The Stingers neutralized Soviet air power and marked a strategic turning point in the war
Before the Stinger's arrival in Afghanistan, the mujahideen had virtually no defense against the Red Army's MI-24 Hind gunships, which sported massive firepower and carried up to eight combat troops. The first time the rebels deployed the Stingers, they brought down three Hinds, and they downed about 275 Russian aircraft before the Red Army retreated in 1989.......

[Benton09]

If Iraq did not have oil and Afghanistan did not have poppy fields, we would not be there. I don't believe the U. S. is very good at fighting wars anymore since the end of WWII. Korea was a stalemate, Vietnam was a complete disaster, the Middle East is unwinnable.
But, as long as the Industrial War Complex continues to rake in Billions and the rich don't share in the suffering, it will go on and on and on. Religious fanaticism, greed and bad judgement fuel the flames of war.

[edward1975-2009]

Oil had nothing to do with us being in either Iraq or Afghanistan. We had that issue resolved when we liberated Kuwait. We could have turned Kuwait into our own oil reserve and no one would have opposed. Iran wanted no part of it and we had already reduced Iraqs "elite" fighting force to a mass of quivering flesh, surrendering quicker than the French in WWWII. So let's get off the oil conspiracy stuff.

[mysteriousjz]

It is time to realize that "both sides" are extremists, just that each side is on the opposite side of the spectrum. No one is yielding; consequently, innocent people are being slaughtered in cold blood by both sides.

It is time to realize the true causes of these "attacks." Are you there because of your enemy? Or your enemy is there because of your presence? If the former, then look no further; you will find it in the mirror.

Once you understand you can not control the free will of an invisible man, only then you will succeed by rational thinking. Mighty force wont do but "step back" will do the trick.

War is not a video game for those on the receiving end. Unless you understand that, you will not only loose there but everywhere and always.

[edward1975-2009]

Bull, Afghanistan tolerated these extremist in the hope they could possibly live in harmony, but like in so many other countries, that didn't happen. These extremist have twisted a religion into a warped ideology to where they feel they need to murder all that think differently. Problem being they use innocents to do it. You don't hear to often of any of these clerics dying for the cause, just women and children, many times forced to do these " leaders" bidding. They are cowards.