Thursday, May 3, 2018

US Soldier Killed in Action Identified - was assisting Special Operations Forces

The Pentagon has identified the US service member killed in action on 30 April 2018 in Eastern Afghanistan.Army Specialist Gabriel D. Conde,22,of Loveland,Colorado was killed by enemy small arms fire while serving in support of Operation Freedom's Sentinel,the US counter-terror role in Afghanistan.*
SPEC Conde was providing security to Special Operations Forces on a joint US/Afghan mission against Islamist extremist Taliban officials in Tagab district of Kapisa Province,east of the Afghan capital Kabul.He was a member of 3rd Battalion,509th Infantry Regiment,4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne),25th Infantry Division out of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson,Alaska.Such infantry units are routinely deployed to provide security assistance to SOFs in Afghanistan.*
SPEC Conde was on his first deployment to Afghanistan and nearly finished with his tour.So far,the Taliban militants have spurned offers of peace talks from the Afghan government of President Ashraf Ghani.

Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Coordinating transport of Afghan Local Police graduates from Wardak to Kunar Province:U.S. CH-47 and Afghan Air Force MI-17 Helicopters in Wardak Province


F-16 Fighting Falcons Still Fly Over Afghanistan • 455th AEW


Over The Mountains Of Afghanistan • F-16 Fighting Falcons


published 19 December 2017:We Joined The Marines Trying To Defeat The Strongest Taliban Army Yet (HBO)


Afghan War:US Service Member Killed in Action along with several Afghan troops;another US service member was wounded and eight NATO troops were wounded in a day of widespread hostilities

A spree of militant attacks killed and wounded several NATO and Afghan troops,as well as nearly a dozen Afghan journalists on 30 April 2018.The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant,which has an affiliate known as the Khorasan Group in the unstable nation,claimed responsibility for the carnage in the Afghan capital Kabul,which killed at least 25 people,including nine Afghan journalists.
Meanwhile,US Forces Afghanistan said an American service member died in an attack during a combat operation in Eastern Afghanistan,which has been a hotbed of Khorasan Group activity the past three years.Another US service member was wounded in the incident and was evacuated to Bagram Airbase in stable condition.In the same attack,several Afghan troops were also killed and wounded.
In Khost Province of Eastern Afghanistan,BBC reporter Ahmad Shah,29,was shot dead,bringing the total journalist deaths for the day to ten.*
In Kandahar city of Southeast Afghanistan,eight Romanian NATO troops were reportedly wounded when a VBIED exploded,which also killed 11 children who were in a nearby religious school.*
Details are sketchy at this time until families have been notified and investigations carried out.*
*The US currently has about 14,000 troops in Afghanistan-up to 8,000 are Special Operations Forces often embedding with Afghan commandos and sent on counterror raids against the ISIL Islamist extremists in the Khorasan Group.Since the number of US troops was increased following the commencement of President Donald Trump's South Asia strategy,more US soldiers were expected to be sent to the front lines with the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces.*
At the recent Foreign Ministerial meeting in Brussels,NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said many NATO members were upping their troop numbers to better assist Afghanistan.