U.S. sees fighting rekindled in Afghanistan

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-06-29-afghanistan-fighting-usat_x.htm

WASHINGTON — The United States has stepped up military activity in Afghanistan, spurred by a resilient insurgency that includes al-Qaeda terrorists and rebels associated with the former Taliban government, according to Afghan officials, Pentagon leaders and Afghanistan experts.

The renewed fighting led to the downing Tuesday of a U.S. Chinook helicopter carrying 17 troops, many of them members of the Navy's elite SEAL commando unit. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade.

If all aboard the helicopter were killed — U.S. forces were still searching for the wreckage and any survivors — Tuesday's crash would be the deadliest incident for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since they invaded in October 2001. Before the crash, 189 American servicemembers had died in or around Afghanistan, according to Pentagon figures.

Afghan Defense Minister Rahim Wardak said the government had intelligence information that at least a half-dozen al-Qaeda operatives had slipped into the country and that two of them had blown themselves up with car bombs.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Really, don't you say

bring it on, sqealed the chimperor

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

2. Funny, that's what happens when you start more

wars than you can fight. Just ask the Brits. Or the Russians. Or *

[shadowknows69]

3. of ocurse the fighters were wearing

their al-qaida/Taliban uniforms so it was easy to tell who we're fighting.

[DavidDvorkin]

4. "Insurgency" again

I know I'll never see US papers call them resistance fighters and our troops the insurgents, but it still annoys me every time I see this.