[NYTr] US Occupier Deaths Mark Grim Afghan, Iraq Milestones

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AP via Google - Nov 11, 2007
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i8dGftYb0s4XWdUMRdIVs3vh1CKAD8SRB1JG0

Deaths Mark Grim Afghan, Iraq Milestones

By Jason Straziuso
The Associated Press
 November 11, 2007

Kabul, Afghanistan  - Militants ambushed and killed six U.S. troops
walking in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan - the most lethal
attack in a year that has been the deadliest for the U.S. military here
since the 2001 invasion.

The number of U.S. deaths in Afghanistan this year mirror the record
toll in Iraq. Both conflicts have seen an increase in troop levels this
year that has put more soldiers in harm's way, including those killed
Friday while returning from a meeting with village elders in Nuristan
province. Militants wielding rocket propelled grenades killed the six
Americans and three Afghan soldiers. Eight U.S. troops were wounded.

"They were attacked from several enemy positions at the same time," Lt.
Col. David Accetta, a spokesman for NATO's International Security
Assistance Force and the U.S. military, said Saturday. "It was a
complex ambush."

The six deaths brings the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan
this year to at least 101, according to an Associated Press count,
surpassing the 93 troops killed in 2005. About 87 died last year. The
toll echoes the situation in Iraq, where U.S. military deaths this year
surpassed 850, also a record.

Launched in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the
war in Afghanistan quickly ousted al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden and
his Taliban protectors and appeared to have been a swift military
victory.

But insurgent attacks - advanced ambushes and suicide and roadside
bombs - have risen sharply the last two years, and analysts say the
counterinsurgency battle U.S. and NATO forces now face will take a
decade or more to win.

Critics of the Bush administration say the Pentagon turned its attention
away from Afghanistan during the build-up to the invasion in Iraq,
leaving the military with too few resources here to back up that
initial victory with an adequate security presence.

Though attacks in Iraq have dropped in recent months, U.S. troops there
have also faced a rising number of suicide and roadside bombs since the
2003 invasion, known as asymmetric attacks in military circles.

Seth Jones, an expert on Afghanistan at the Washington-based RAND Corp.,
said the power of the U.S. military has forced insurgent groups into
relying on such bombings.

"It's an irony that the United States far and away has the most powerful
military in the world," said Jones. "I think the current levels of
attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan show, however, that the key
vulnerability to the United States both in Afghanistan and Iraq is the
asymmetric attacks."

U.S. forces have two combat brigades - more than 8,000 troops - in
eastern Afghanistan this year, up from one last year. The U.S. has
about 25,000 forces in Afghanistan today - 15,000 under NATO and 10,000
under the U.S.-led coalition.

Accetta said U.S. forces this year have pushed into new areas that
traditionally have been militant safe havens.

"If you look back, last year we didn't have a significant presence in
Nuristan and now we do," he said. "That all contributes to the fact
there have been more casualties this year than there have been in
previous years."

Violence is at record levels across the board. Insurgents have launched
more than 130 suicide attacks, a record number, and Afghanistan last
week saw its deadliest attack since 2001, a suicide bombing in Baghlan
province that killed about 75 people, including 59 students and six
members of parliament.

"It certainly is disturbing that U.S. casualty figures, though they are
low in general, are increasing," Jones said. "But I think the most
significant concern is the growth that is affecting Afghans, the whole
panoply of raids, IEDs, suicide attacks, and the attack in Baghlan this
week."

More than 5,800 people, mostly militants, have died due to
insurgency-related violence this year, also a record, according to an AP
count based on figures from Western and Afghan officials.

In Helmand province on Sunday, a suicide bomber detonated himself near a
NATO convoy in the town of Gereshk, wounding three civilians nearby,
said Helmand police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal. In the eastern
province of Khost, police patrolling on foot Saturday were hit by a
land-mine blast that killed one officer and wounded two civilians, said
Wazir Pacha, a spokesman for the provincial police.

Anthony Cordesman, an expert on the U.S. military, said in a report this
month that the average number of attacks in Afghanistan each month has
risen 30 percent this year, from 425 in 2006 to 548 this year.

He labeled the Afghan conflict a "war of attrition that can last 15 or
more years" that militants can win simply by outlasting U.S. and NATO
efforts.

"As in Vietnam, tactical victory can easily become irrelevant," he
wrote in a report for the Washington-based Center for Strategic and
International Studies that called for greater development of the Afghan
government and military.

Friday's ambush resulted in the highest number of U.S. casualties from a
battle this year, Accetta said.

"With Sunday being Veterans Day, this is a reminder of the sacrifices
that our troops and our Afghan partners make for the peace and
stability of the Afghan people," Accetta said.

Fighter aircraft and troops using artillery and mortars at nearby
outposts fired on the militants' positions, Accetta said. It wasn't
immediately clear how many militants were involved in the ambush, he
said.

Mohammad Daoud Nadim, Nuristan deputy police chief, said the ambush
happened in the remote province's Waygal district, about 40 miles from
the border with Pakistan, which militants are known to use as a
sanctuary.

Arabs and other foreign fighters from Chechnya and Uzbekistan are known
to operate in the Nuristan region, but the provincial governor, Tamin
Nuristani, blamed the attack on Taliban militants. Nuristani said the
combined troops searched two houses after the meeting with village
elders and were ambushed while walking to their base afterward.

Nuristan province has seen heavy fighting recently. Two U.S. soldiers
were killed and 13 wounded by an ambush in July, while militants
disguised in Afghan army uniforms wounded 11 U.S. troops in August.

The attack Friday was the deadliest incident for U.S. troops since a
Chinook crashed in February in Zabul province, killing eight Americans.
Officials ruled out enemy fire as the cause of that crash.

Associated Press reporter Amir Shah contributed to this report.