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Subscribe to RSSIn light of recent attacks, troops are told to "build trust, but make sure you have a bodyguard present." NBC's Richard Engel reports.
Updated at 5:54 p.m. ET: An apparent insider attack by Afghan forces has killed a U.S. service member and a contractor, officials said Sunday – bringing the total number of U.S. troops killed inside Afghanistan to 2,000 according to some measures.
A U.S. official confirmed the latest death in the 11-year-old conflict on Sunday.
The American service member killed was a soldier. The American contractor was working as a trainer for either the Afghan army or police, according to NBC News.
On Saturday night, an Afghan soldier approached Americans, killing a soldier and a contractor; with that, the number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan is around 2,100 in the United States' 11-year-war in the country. Insider attacks have become increasingly common – and no one seems to have a good answer about how to stop them. NBC's Lester Holt and Richard Engel report from Kabul.
The attack happened Saturday at a checkpoint on a highway in Wardak Province, a defense official said. Two Afghan National Army soldiers approached the checkpoint and had a brief conversation with the troops there. One of the ANA soldiers then shot and killed the American service members and the contractor, officials told NBC News.
With a suspected "insider" attack at a checkpoint. the US military has suffered its 2,000th death in the war in Afghanistan. NBC's Atia Abawi and Mike Viqueira report.
A brief firefight ensued, and left at least three Afghan Army soldiers dead - including the initial shooter, officials said.
The Afghan military claimed the Americans were killed by a mortar attack, but the American military insisted that is not true, that the Afghan soldier opened fire and they returned fire.
The dead U.S. soldier was identified as Sgt. 1st Class Riley G. Stephens, 39, of Tolar, Texas. Stephens was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), based at Fort Bragg, N.C.
The U.S. toll in Afghanistan has climbed steadily in recent months with a spate of attacks by Afghan army and police against American and NATO troops, and questions about whether allied countries will achieve their aim of helping the Afghan government and its forces stand on their own after most foreign troops depart in little more than two years. The U.S. is preparing to withdraw most of its combat forces by the end of 2014.
The Associated Press reported Sunday that the latest death was the 2,000th member of the U.S. armed services killed inside Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion on Oct. 7, 2001. However, that AP figure did not include those who died after sustaining injuries in Afghanistan or those killed in other countries as part of the same campaign against al-Qaida and the Taliban.
TODAY's Lester Holt heads down the road to Sangasar, the physical and spiritual heart of the Taliban. He speaks with American and Afghan soldiers along the way.
According to icasualties.org, an independent monitoring organization which uses the wider definition, the latest death brings the toll of U.S. service members to 2035. At least a further 1,190 coalition troops have also died in the Afghanistan war, it says.
The Brookings Institution, a Washington-based research center, said 40.2 percent of the deaths were caused by improvised explosive devices, with the majority of those after 2009 when President Barack Obama ordered a surge of 33,000 troops to combat heightened Taliban activity. According to the Washington-based research center, the second highest cause, 30.6 percent, was hostile fire.
Tracking civilian deaths is much more difficult. According to the U.N., 13,431 civilians were killed in the Afghan conflict between 2007, when the U.N. began keeping statistics, and the end of August. Going back to the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, most estimates put the number of Afghan deaths in the war at more than 20,000.
The 2001 invasion targeted al-Qaida and its Taliban allies after the Sept. 11 attacks, which claimed nearly 3,000 lives in the United States.
"The tally is modest by the standards of war historically, but every fatality is a tragedy and 11 years is too long," Michael O'Hanlon, a fellow at the Brookings, told the AP. "All that is internalized, however, in an American public that has been watching this campaign for a long time. More newsworthy right now are the insider attacks and the sense of hopelessness they convey to many. "
Attacks by Afghan soldiers or police — or insurgents disguised in their uniforms — have killed 52 American and other NATO troops so far this year.
The so-called insider attacks are considered one of the most serious threats to the U.S. exit strategy from the country. In its latest incarnation, that strategy has focused on training Afghan forces to take over security nationwide — allowing most foreign troops to go home by the end of 2014.
As American troops draw out of Afghanistan, officials say the removal plan is on track but that time is precious and the Taliban threat is worrisome. NBC's Lester Holt reports.
Although Obama has pledged that most U.S. combat troops will leave by the end of 2014, American, NATO and allied troops are still dying in Afghanistan at a rate of one a day.
Even with 33,000 American troops back home, the U.S.-led coalition will still have 108,000 troops — including 68,000 from the U.S. — fighting in Afghanistan at the end of this year. Many of those will be training the Afghan National Security Forces that are to replace them.
"There is a challenge for the administration," O'Hanlon said, "to remind people in the face of such bad news why this campaign requires more perseverance."
The Associated Press and NBC News' Courtney Kube and Atia Abawi, in Kabul, contributed to this report.
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President Bill Clinton had the answer. Lob a few tomahawk missiles at them and then forget it. GW Bush made the mistake of sendin 100,000 troops to Afghanistan and then asked why they were there. Sheezh. how dumb even for a dumbo
O&JOe 12
My Bad.
AH, once again americans die and is all we see is the hand-wringing arm chair generals spouting off about it from the comfort of thier little man caves.
I voted for Obama last election because my son, who was an army ranger, was on his 2nd tour in afcrapistan, and I wanted him out.
He ended up being wounded on his THIRD tour, and after his wounds healed he was sent right back.
So much for that strategy.
Phased withdrawal is a joke, we can walk out of that sh!thole of a country right now if we wanted to, but then we wouldnt have any bases in the north to use against Iran when we start the shooting war there.
The "surge" was a big mistake, and staying there on a "phased" withdrawal is a bigger one. Let them go back to killing each other, who cares?
Never have we asked so few to do so much, in vain.
O&JOe 12
weatherman....I salute your son..and thank him...it is sad that he got hurt, but the biggest problem is yet to come and he is going to need your help...so help him don't critize why he was there, he like millions of others joined...we all knew there was a chance something could happen...when we signed up we signed an unconditional contract which included the possibility we could get hurt or give our life ......how many on here now have done that, signed an agreement which could cost you your life...from the total population over the years it has been 7%..the other 93% sit and complain..fine that is everyones right which I and X millions of others served for...God Bless your son.
Stan,
I would never criticize my son or any other american willing to put it on the line.
He joined even though he couldve went to college. I was shocked and a little angry at first, but I am very proud of his sacrifice.
The younger generation thinks they are doing something noble (god bless em) but are in reality just pawns in the geo-political BS game.
Old men start wars, young men fight them.
Weatherman....just take care of him...again God Bless...
Oh good the UN is keeping a body count and the NATO forces are fighting. The UN won't even keep its observers in these countries and because of the veto power of China and Russia they can't intervene in Syria or any other country friendly to Russia. The whole middle east thing is stupid. You go to war to win, not kill certain people that the host gov. says are the bad guys. You don't say okay we'll pull out on a certain date whether we are still fighting or not but because of a diplomatic agreement with the host country. They are tired of us fighting in their country and want us out. As long as the gov. in charge can say, "Hey this isn't our doings" when we are attacked by some of their people. We simply can't economically afford this war.
If congress and the administration no matter which party is in charge had to lay their life on the line this and most other wars would have never started. I’m not saying we should never defend ourselves but it should be
defending not acting as the world police force. The people in the Middle East have never wanted our interference and never will. On one hand they ask for help and on the other hand they are sticking a knife in our back. If either party was as interested in protecting America as they are in ripping off the American public they would be protecting America instead of interfering with the rest of the world. Of course the same group of despots with the exception of maybe a few will be voted in election after election.
SNL.. "Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started a Conversation With at a Party", very funny.
How in hell can Americans accept this "faulty intelligence" BS. Even if it were true, even if they didn't cherry-pick intelligence to fit their agenda, what kind of a response is it? "Well. we THOUGHT that Iraq was a serious threat, but the intelligence was wrong, oops, sorry about that. Sorry for all that were killed and maimed in our pointless invasion of Iraq, but hey, it was an honest mistake, damn faulty intelligence, gets you every time!" That's good enough, oops, sorry?
Animals can only be trained to a certain point and in the end they're still animals...
wakani, I have tried to ignore your stupid callous remarks but this time you are so freaking stupid I can't.
Stay until 2014 and we will have won and they won't follow us here and blow stuff up like the World Trade Center?
Let's go back to the several times you said that the guys dying over there knew what they were getting into when they volunteered so let them die and STFU and move on.. that's the gist of your compassion and reaction to the deaths of our military at the hands of our "allies" there.
(Do let me say you stupid ignorant freak.... no they did not know what they getting into with this bunch of two faced murdering lying bastards. Most of the enemies we have been to war with have not invited our men to dinner and shot them dead at the table.... have not stood beside them killing their own people, clapped them on the back over a job well done, then turned the guns on them and killed THEM as well... you get the picture you ass?)
Anyway, you personally have no horse in that race to say they should stay until 2014... do you? Seeing as how you personally did not volunteer to go stay until 2014 yourself? When they volunteered, most were told they wouldn't do more than one or two tours in that filthy hell. Oh, wait!!! You don't bother to read about the many return tours they have subjected to, the breakdowns and suicides of the "volunteers" you are so blithely talking about here, do you?
How many of those you say raised their hands would have done it if there was employment in this country for them?
The military and its offer to pay for their education is a heck of a better choice than years of looking for a low paying jobs the illegals are taking.
All we hafta do is start torching and napalming the poppy fields and we'll be outta there yesterday.
I'll drink to that and support it 1000%.
Thank you President Obama for committing this country to ten more years of getting to read these kind of news stories about Afghanistan.
Its a shame your children will never see military service and be exposed to the dangers our children are exposed to with your poor judgement and bad decision making.
If you had withdrawn our troops like you promised in your first campaign, a mother wouldn't be crying today because of some rabid dog's zealots actions.
Actually, he was quite clear during his first campaign of wanting a troop surge in Afghanistan and a huge build-up, but, wanted to end Iraq. His end-game will be Africa.
Well Perry
This week we got to read where the last troops were just pulled out of Iraq. He's already has troops in parts of Africa and with his ten year commitment to Afghanistan, he creating plenty of work for our young adults and plenty of body bags made in China to bring them home in.
"the last troops out of Iraq"????
What about the 15,000 CIA troops in Iraq that Obama doesn't want us to know about?
? Men and women are dying and many more coming home in pieces, and you carry on a conversation like this Ricardo? Our 'bragging about what we do for the troops' congress, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell in Washington State, are responsible for sending our kids over there, and for enticing other U.N. nations to do the same. All under the guise of another American hoax. England failed twice in Afghanistan, and Russia once. Iraq is beginning to boil and its not all about oil. Term limits, and get rid of the fancy dandy who has never been in uniform, and is jealous of the boy scouts.
1425 American troops killed in 44 months under the Obama Administration.
575 American troops killed in 88 months under the Bush Administration.
All is in good hands though, Obama has a Nobel Peace Prize.... they don't give those things away for nothing, you know.
Really? I am still trying to figure out why he got it.....and don't tell me it was because he said he would be kissing every ME countries backside...he did nothing to earn it...
575 American troops killed in 88 months under the Bush Administration...oops you forgot to add 3,000.
Dead in NYC, on american soil, because Bushes admin ignored all the intel.
Sooooo, lets see......
1425 Americans killed in 44 months under the Obama Administration.
3575 Americans killed in 88 months under the Bush Administration.
There we go. Have a nice day, moron.
Weatherman...putting the nearly 3,000 killed in the attacks on 9/11 really is not right...it would not have happened had Clinton acted when he had the chance, 3 times, to have Bin Laden handed to him...
A Nobel Peace prized winner that told the world in his acceptance speech he neither earned it nor deserved it and he was going to steal the $1.4 million in prize money from someone who actually earned it, deserved it and should have received it If Obama had refused it like an man with honor would have done.
That's the democrats choice for President and they dare open their mouths about Romney. They carry their shame well for being stupid.
Pardon, Bush ignored the intel?
A certain right wing pundit that the left loves to hate was warning in 1997 that "buildings, bodies and blood would be spilled in the streets of NY".
Bush was president in 1997? Clinton ignored the intel and had the chance to kill Bin-Laden.
The same pundit reported to his audience the day before the Ambassador was killed that the Ambassador would be killed in a terrorist attack.
You lefties really ought to sharpen up your intel skills.
stan, "Nobel Peace Prize.... they don't give those things away for nothing, you know." (Sarcasm).
Remember that Carter also received one...
Africa is next and happening right under our noses while we're distracted by Afghanistan and Iran. We actually have troops on the ground in 6 countries there, and using Kenya as a base. The media is ignoring it, and people just dont know. That's Obama's end game, but, not all Americans agree or disagree because it just isn't on the front burner yet. But, it's happening as we speak. No doubt Afghanistan is the biggest mistake of his administration, and we should have been out of there 2 years ago minimum. I don't believe this 2014 date either.
"The media is ignoring it"..... the media ignores most of what Obama does.
Shameful.
champagnesabre
You are so right on. Look at how MSNBC hasn't reported on the fact that the first 3 battalions of troops are being trained for Obama's new Military Police Authority.
With a $16 trillion debt crisis and all the police authorities at a federal, state, country and local levels what do does this country need another police authority for.
Could it have something to do with the fact that this new Military Police Authority's authority isn't restricted by Constitutional protections afforded every citizen like the other police authorities are.You bet it is.
check this out.......
In a stunning move, on March 16, 2012, Barack Obama signed an Executive Order stating that the President and his specifically designated Secretaries now have the authority to commandeer all domestic U.S. resources including food and water. The EO also states that the President and his Secretaries have the authority to seize all transportation, energy, and infrastructure inside the United States as well as forcibly induct/draft American citizens into the military. The EO also contains a vague reference in regards to harnessing American citizens to fulfill “labor requirements” for the purposes of national defense.
Not only that, but the authority claimed inside the EO does not only apply to National Emergencies and times of war. It also applies in peacetime.
This is the document mentioned...National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order
For those of you who have the theory we should remain intimately involved in Afghanistan and Pakistan to keep the Taliban under control, you're missing one major factor. The Muslims are so busy killing one another, they really wouldn't have time to even pencil us in if we were to leave. I say let it implode. We have the capability to build a base in the middle of the ocean if we needed or wanted to, and we'd even get to guard it and would be allowed to carry our weapons and ammo. We're a security force for the Karzai Drug Cartel. Dumping billions into two countries who hate us and we'll never make a difference there. But, I see some are still believing the Bush propaganda that the measure of our success rests in keeping the war "over there." What difference does it make where it is if our people are dying and our economy is being drained ?
The Afgan war has been a farce from the start. No leadership from the top. No consistency of management in the field. Politics driving strategy. Easily penetrated from within. Our government has degenerated into a giant pissing contest. Total disconnect between the White House and Congress. Lawmakers spend their time safeguarding their jobs bowing to gray haired dinosaur party leaders. They feather their nests and seek lucrative connections while taxpayers go broke. Party before country! Are there no statesmen/women willing to do their job? Send a message to them all with your vote.
More of our soldiers blood on Obama's hands. Get our troops home!! Obama continues sending these terrorist our taxpayer's money that is buying weapon, ammunition and explosives that are killing our soldiers and will be used against us.
Frank Marshall Davis Bio - Barrack Obama's REAL father
Frank Marshall Davis (1905-1987) was a Communist Party USA (CPUSA) propagandist in Chicago and Hawaii, as well as a writer and poet. The FBI had Davis under investigation or surveillance for 19 years, compiling a 600-page FBI file. He was on the FBI's 'Security Index A', meaning he would be arrested in the event of national emergency.
In 1930's Chicago, CPUSA recruited journalists to help spread Soviet influence in American public opinion. Frank Marshall Davis was one of them. A graduate of Kansas State Journalism School, Frank Marshall Davis joined the Communist Party and began writing for The Chicago Star. He was a colleague of journalist Vernon Jarrett, father-in-law of Obama confidant Valerie Jarrett. Davis also taught at Chicago's Abraham Lincoln School, a Communist run training school run by CPUSA. Davis authored three major volumes of poetry, and later an autobiographical sex novel under a pseudonym.
In 1948, the Kremlin ordered CPUSA to facilitate a US withdrawal from the Hawaii as US naval forces were considered an obstacle to Soviet expansion in Asia. CPUSA assigned Frank Marshall Davis to Honolulu where he began writing for the Communist Newspaper, theHonolulu Recordin 1948. In his columns, Davis flawlessly mirrored official Soviet propaganda - he blamed American capitalism for starting World War II, denounced the Marshall Plan, preached wealth redistribution, nationalization of industry and government healthcare, while bashing Wall Street. Davis also helped organize the Communist controlled ILWU (union) in a failed effort to take over the Hawaiian government in 1949. The Hawaii NAACP chapter complained to its national office, "Comrade Frank Marshall Davis suddenly appeared on the scene to propagandize the membership with the purpose of converting it into a front for the Stalinist line." In 1956, Davis was subpoenaed by the Senate Subcommittee on Un-American Activities and pleaded the fifth. Dreams from My Real Fathermakes the case that on August 4, 1961, Frank Marshall Davis became the father of the future 44th President of the United States and indoctrinated him with a Marxist ideology during his formative years.
If Obama is re-elected, he will convert our country into a socialist country.
Save our country and keep it free.
Romney - Ryan 2012
No Rangerwoofie -
His daddy was Nat King Cole - he too was in Hawaii in the early 1960's. (That's where the Pres. gets his good voice.)
(Boy, you sure know how to cut n paste that dribble!)
Romney/Ryan isn't the answer. We're pretty much screwed for the next four years either way.
Obama and the idiot who is just a heartbeat away from being Pres are not the answer...we have been screwed for nearly 4 years and if elected again...Lord have Mercy on us....
Sorry Stan, but Obama IS the answer. If not for the unreasonable obstruction of the corporate thug republicans, who are going to hurt the American people even further if they get a chance, America's economy would be in much better shatpe right now. Obama only wants to do the right thing by the American people, he always has. He is a good man, with convictions and a strong moral compass. The republicans have become nothing but a power-hungry gang of immoral, unethical thugs who will bleed middle America dry for the benefit of their corporate overlords. They must go, the whole sorry, pledge-signing, treasonous lot of them.
stan
If Obama gets reelected its being project that he will leave office after 4 more years with a national debt between $22 and $24 trillion.
He's already turned this country into the Greece of the America's by almost shutting down our government twice in fourteen months and then having to beg money from foreign nations to keep his government operating.
This from a man who claims increasing America's dept weaken us domestically and internationally.
leroy, socialism, lies, distortion, distraction and smear is not the answer.
Don't go telling us about the corporate owned Republicans until you accept that the Democrats are owned by corporate America as well.
We deserve better than either.
Shame on you for not seeking the truth.
Shame on the media for not investigating the real Romney, or the real Obama, and keeping idiots like you propagandized.
leroy.. "Obama only wants to do the right thing by the American people, he always has"
Good God..... read Obama's very own words.
Here's a place to start reading, "under my system of cap and trade your energy rates will necessarily skyrocket".
You could also read his book...
Karl Marx had a name for people like you.
Romoney doesn't mean what he says nor say what he means. You can't trust a guy like that!
Obama/Biden 2012
@Ryan -
Dan Rather found Osama bin Laden during the Clinton administration three times and even interviewed him in a cave. But, 17 intelligence agencies in this country couldn't find him. All during the Iraq debacle, I kept saying we should have planted a homing device on Peter Arnett and sent him in to interview Saddam and hit'em both with a Hellfire missile, and the world would've been a better place and we'd have saved trillions. But, nobody liked my idea.
OBAMA: "I'm going to bring all the troops home shortly" (that was about one year ago?)
OBAMA: "I will not raise the deficit one dollar" (that was $6 trillion dollars ago?)
Obama: "I promise to set up a mortgage relief fund for the elderly" (that was an unkept 2008 campaing promise?)
LIAR, FAKE, FRAUD
Pull our troops and bomb the crap out of them stop playing games over there. Every time we make a kill our troops are put under investigation (WHY). Who is the idiot running the show over there. O I forgot our black Muslim want to be President what a joke he is.This no different then Viet Nam Just kill enough and we will go home. We are not in this to win..............................
Why did I an independent voter chose Obama over McCain?
McCain said we would stay in Afghanistan "as long as it would take."
Obama said we would be out in 18-24 months.
48 month later we have PROOF of ANOTHER BROKEN OBAMA PROMISE
Just get the hail out of there and let the Afghans handle their own problems they can't be trusted, and no more money to these knuckle heads.