Four US Servicemen killed in Kandahar Province

[IRepoCans]

Rest in peace warriors,

Bomb Kills 4 Soldiers In Afghanistan
By TAIMOOR SHAH and ROD NORDLAND
Published: October 6, 2013

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Four coalition soldiers were killed Sunday in southern Afghanistan, the American-led international military force said, in the coalition’s worst loss of life in a single episode since June. The episode took place in the Zhari district, in Kandahar Province, said Javed Faisal, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

The International Security Assistance Force said in a statement that the four soldiers were killed “by enemy forces during a partnered operation.” It gave no further details. The coalition did not identify the nationality of the victims pending notification of their next of kin, but nearly all coalition soldiers in Zhari are Americans.

Jamal Agha, the district governor of Zhari, said the deaths occurred in a fight between insurgents and a joint operation involving coalition and Afghan commandos. He said the deaths were caused by a booby-trapped bomb.

A spokesman for the Taliban, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, said the insurgents had placed a bomb in a house and detonated it when the coalition soldiers entered. When the soldiers’ comrades came to their aid, a suicide bomber hiding elsewhere in the house detonated his explosives.

More at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/07/world/asia/afghanistan-coalition-soldiers-killed.html?_r=1&


Jack Murphy at SOFREP says they are Rangers and Enablers:

A Mass Casualty event is pretty much exactly what it sounds like.  When a military unit sustains so many injuries that it can no longer sustain itself, it becomes what is known as a Mass-Cas event.  This doesn’t happen very often thankfully although we know of some other examples where casualties became overwhelming such as Operation Gothic Serpent or the Extortion 17 crash.  One such event happened Saturday night to 3rd Ranger Battalion during a night operation in Southern Afghanistan.

A Ranger Platoon infiltrated the objective area by helicopter and soon came under attack.  The details are still vague and we won’t speculate or armchair quarterback from a distance.  We do know that the Rangers were hit both by command detonated Improvised Explosive Devices (IED’s) and enemy combatants wearing suicide vests.

Four friendlies were killed in the blast, two Rangers and two enablers.  Others were critically wounded during the series of detonations, many of them still in intensive care with serious injuries.  The numbers of Wounded in Action are worse than anything I’ve heard in recent years.

While the media has reported on Sunday that Delta Force flawlessly executed a capture operation in Libya, and SEAL Team Six wisely aborted their mission in Somalia without taking casualties, the 75th Ranger Regiment was not so fortunate that same weekend.  The New York Times reported on the casualties but wisely withheld the details until the families could be notified.  The names have not been released by SOCOM and we ask that people not post any names under after that time.



Read more: http://sofrep.com/28650/ranger-mass-cas-afghanistan-airborne-ranger-sky/#ixzz2h5nwv3Ca