Pentagon Identifies Soldiers Killed from Embattled Special Forces Unit in Afghanistan
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By James LaPorta On 3/23/19 at 5:59 PM EDT
Two Americans, a special operations soldier and an explosive ordnance disposal specialist on his first overseas deployment, were killed by enemy fire in Afghanistan on Friday amid volatile U.S.-Taliban peace talks and an alienated Afghan government.
Sergeant First Class William D. Lindsay, 34, from Cortez, Colorado, and Specialist Joseph “Joey” P. Collette, 30, from Lancaster, Ohio, were killed by small-arms fire during a joint operation between U.S. Army Green Berets and Afghan special forces soldiers in northern Kunduz Province. Four Afghan commandos were also killed, according to The New York Times.
Another special forces soldier, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Chris, whose last name is being withheld by Newsweek, was wounded during the firefight. He is listed in stable condition and was able to notify his family personally of his injury. Chris will be evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany for follow-on treatment, sources told Newsweek on Friday afternoon.
Two additional U.S. service members were also wounded from the same incident. Newsweek is not publishing their names at this time, but both soldiers are expected to recover after being medically evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and then on to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland.
U.S. Army special forces teams, known as Operational Detachment Alphas, set out on a joint mission with soldiers from the Afghan National Army Commando Corps, the special forces arm of the regular army.
In what has become a routine mission for both American and Afghan special operation forces as negotiations continue to draw the war to a close, the unit was conducting a raid on a high-value individual within a residential area of the Gul Tepa District, said two Defense Department sources who asked not to be named due to Pentagon media regulations.
Unlike the rural, tribal regions of Afghanistan’s southern Helmand Province, Kunduz is a bustling urban city, the sixth largest in Afghanistan with a population of more than 268,000, according to a 2015 United Nations reports.
Intelligence suggested Taliban fighters were not supposed to be in the area when the gun battle broke out, and because the special forces soldiers were in a residential area, no air support was provided, said the sources.
U.S. military sources Newsweek spoke to said they believe the Taliban was tipped off and had set up an ambush for the American and Afghan forces.
Taliban fighters have been trying to cement their gains in the region for years in Kunduz City. Back in 2015, the insurgency took over the territory in the northern provincial capital, where they freed hundreds of inmates from prison—the loss of a major city was the Taliban’s most significant victory since 2001 at the time.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, said Friday that insurgents had killed as many as three Americans and nine Afghan commandos; however, those figures are likely misleading as the group often exaggerates their battlefield claims.
Abdul Wodood Payman, an Afghan lawmaker from Kunduz, told The Associated Press on Friday that there was heavy fighting in the Kunduz neighborhood of Taluka, where jet fighters roared overhead, and bombings could be heard. Newsweek was not able to determine if that fighting was a part of the special forces operation or a separate mission.
Amruddin Wali, a member of the provincial council in Kunduz, told The New York Times on Friday that, “The district is completely in the Taliban control.”
Early Saturday morning, a second firefight broke out when a convoy of U.S. and Afghan special forces were leaving the Gul Tepa district. A convoy broke down and when the soldiers dismounted their vehicle to fix it, an Afghan soldier began firing on them, according to reporting on Saturday from The New York Times.
The gunfight lasted for about 20 minutes when air strikes came in, which had killed 12 civilians and six soldiers, according to Mohammed Ibrahim, the commander of Afghan Local Police in Kunduz province, who was interviewed by Times reporters.
“We are fighting in a complex environment and this firefight is a prime example of the challenges Afghan and coalition forces face every day,” said U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Debra Richardson, a spokeswoman for Resolute Support in a statement to the Times. “The Taliban were hiding in civilian homes and maneuvered in and out of compounds without any concern for the families living inside.”
In the aftermath on Saturday, dozens of Afghan protestors took to the streets in northern Kunduz, expressing their outrage over the joint military operation while carrying the remains of their loved ones, according to The Associated Press, who reported that photos from the protest appeared to show the bodies of twelve people, including five or six small children.
Inamuddin Rahmani, a police spokesman in the region, told the AP that there were operations in three different areas in Kunduz over the previous three days that had killed multiple insurgent fighters.
https://www.newsweek.com/two-army-s...istan-1373149?amp=1&__twitter_impression=true
By James LaPorta On 3/23/19 at 5:59 PM EDT
Two Americans, a special operations soldier and an explosive ordnance disposal specialist on his first overseas deployment, were killed by enemy fire in Afghanistan on Friday amid volatile U.S.-Taliban peace talks and an alienated Afghan government.
Sergeant First Class William D. Lindsay, 34, from Cortez, Colorado, and Specialist Joseph “Joey” P. Collette, 30, from Lancaster, Ohio, were killed by small-arms fire during a joint operation between U.S. Army Green Berets and Afghan special forces soldiers in northern Kunduz Province. Four Afghan commandos were also killed, according to The New York Times.
Another special forces soldier, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Chris, whose last name is being withheld by Newsweek, was wounded during the firefight. He is listed in stable condition and was able to notify his family personally of his injury. Chris will be evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany for follow-on treatment, sources told Newsweek on Friday afternoon.
Two additional U.S. service members were also wounded from the same incident. Newsweek is not publishing their names at this time, but both soldiers are expected to recover after being medically evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and then on to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland.
U.S. Army special forces teams, known as Operational Detachment Alphas, set out on a joint mission with soldiers from the Afghan National Army Commando Corps, the special forces arm of the regular army.
In what has become a routine mission for both American and Afghan special operation forces as negotiations continue to draw the war to a close, the unit was conducting a raid on a high-value individual within a residential area of the Gul Tepa District, said two Defense Department sources who asked not to be named due to Pentagon media regulations.
Unlike the rural, tribal regions of Afghanistan’s southern Helmand Province, Kunduz is a bustling urban city, the sixth largest in Afghanistan with a population of more than 268,000, according to a 2015 United Nations reports.
Intelligence suggested Taliban fighters were not supposed to be in the area when the gun battle broke out, and because the special forces soldiers were in a residential area, no air support was provided, said the sources.
U.S. military sources Newsweek spoke to said they believe the Taliban was tipped off and had set up an ambush for the American and Afghan forces.
Taliban fighters have been trying to cement their gains in the region for years in Kunduz City. Back in 2015, the insurgency took over the territory in the northern provincial capital, where they freed hundreds of inmates from prison—the loss of a major city was the Taliban’s most significant victory since 2001 at the time.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, said Friday that insurgents had killed as many as three Americans and nine Afghan commandos; however, those figures are likely misleading as the group often exaggerates their battlefield claims.
Abdul Wodood Payman, an Afghan lawmaker from Kunduz, told The Associated Press on Friday that there was heavy fighting in the Kunduz neighborhood of Taluka, where jet fighters roared overhead, and bombings could be heard. Newsweek was not able to determine if that fighting was a part of the special forces operation or a separate mission.
Amruddin Wali, a member of the provincial council in Kunduz, told The New York Times on Friday that, “The district is completely in the Taliban control.”
Early Saturday morning, a second firefight broke out when a convoy of U.S. and Afghan special forces were leaving the Gul Tepa district. A convoy broke down and when the soldiers dismounted their vehicle to fix it, an Afghan soldier began firing on them, according to reporting on Saturday from The New York Times.
The gunfight lasted for about 20 minutes when air strikes came in, which had killed 12 civilians and six soldiers, according to Mohammed Ibrahim, the commander of Afghan Local Police in Kunduz province, who was interviewed by Times reporters.
“We are fighting in a complex environment and this firefight is a prime example of the challenges Afghan and coalition forces face every day,” said U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Debra Richardson, a spokeswoman for Resolute Support in a statement to the Times. “The Taliban were hiding in civilian homes and maneuvered in and out of compounds without any concern for the families living inside.”
In the aftermath on Saturday, dozens of Afghan protestors took to the streets in northern Kunduz, expressing their outrage over the joint military operation while carrying the remains of their loved ones, according to The Associated Press, who reported that photos from the protest appeared to show the bodies of twelve people, including five or six small children.
Inamuddin Rahmani, a police spokesman in the region, told the AP that there were operations in three different areas in Kunduz over the previous three days that had killed multiple insurgent fighters.
