Afghanistan: On Ground Updates - July 17, 2008

Afghanistan:
On Ground Updates
As US Forces Abandon Outpost In Afghanistan Where Nine American Soldiers Were Killed Sunday, Afghan NATO Force Hit Targets Inside Pakistan
Thursday, July 17, 2008

* The New York Times website has this report up this Thursday morning and it begins like this... American forces have abandoned the outpost in northeastern Afghanistan where nine American soldiers were killed Sunday in a heavy attack by insurgents, NATO officials said Wednesday... The withdrawal handed a propaganda victory to the Taliban, and insurgents were quick to move into the village of Wanat beside the abandoned outpost, Afghan officials said. Insurgents nearly overran the barely built outpost in a dawn raid on Sunday, the most deadly assault for United States forces in Afghanistan since 2005... Those forces have fought some of their most difficult battles in Kunar and Nuristan Provinces, with their thickly forested mountainsides and steep ravines. Guerrillas mount ambushes and rocket attacks from the mountains and then easily escape...
Read this report in full at link below...
U.S. Abandons Site of Afghan Attack

* The International Herald Tribune website reports the stories this way... U.S. troops abandoned the remote outpost in eastern Afghanistan where militants recently killed nine of their comrades, officials said Wednesday, while NATO launched artillery and helicopter strikes on insurgents in neighboring Pakistan...
Read the rest at link below...
U.S. troops abandon outpost on Afghan-Pakistani border

Map courtesy of CENTCOM

* REUTERS.com reports the news out of Afghanistan today this way... NATO forces in Afghanistan hit targets inside Pakistan with artillery and attack helicopters after coming under rocket fire from across the border, the alliance said on Wednesday... Tension is high along the border with a sharp rise in attacks in eastern Afghanistan coming from inside Pakistan that Afghan and NATO officials blame on de-facto ceasefires between the Pakistani military and militants in its lawless tribal belt...
Read the rest at link below...
Afghan NATO force hits targets inside Pakistan

* Thaindian.com website reports... NATO forces have attacked targets inside Pakistan after coming under fire from militants in the country’s North Waziristan region, the alliance has announced. The attack with helicopter gunships and artillery came after NATO Task Force (TF) Currahee in Afghanistan’s Paktika province “received multiple rocket attacks from militants inside Pakistan on July 15″, a statement posted on the NATO website said... “The troops identified a qalat (mound) as the point of origin of the attacks and responded in self-defence with a combination of fire from attack helicopters and artillery into Pakistan,” the statement said...
Read the rest at link below...
NATO targets militants in Pakistan