Afghanistan - Taliban ambush: 'Get us out of here'

Globe and Mail (Canada) ^ | May 19, 2007 | GRAEME SMITH

[HAL9000]

Excerpt -

SANGIN, AFGHANISTAN — Shots cracked over barricades in the dark, and the night filled with sounds of men shouting and running. The defenders of a small outpost in the town of Sangin slammed mortars into firing tubes, sending up flares that cast a ghostly light over the confused scene.

The smoky phosphorescence revealed British and Afghan soldiers watching nervously over the walls, toward an empty graveyard that Taliban fighters had used as cover to sneak up on a guard post. It was only a probing attack, intended to gauge the strength of the government forces now desperately holding a town on the front lines of this year's fight against the insurgents.

But the attack seemed to fray the nerves of the British troops, who had narrowly escaped an ambush a few hours earlier. As the flares winked out and darkness returned, a soldier walked up to a journalist and tried to give him a handgun.

The offer was declined, but the soldier insisted: “You might need it,” he said, holding out the weapon, its black polish gleaming under his headlamp. “We don't know what will happen tonight.”

~ snip ~

[Goldwater and Gingrich]

I hope the whole story is made up. If this is how the British fight then there is no way they will be wining any war.

“Its way out of our league,” he said, and the ANA commander nodded.”

Their was maybe ten bad guys with poor training. So the AK47 and some RPG’s is better than any thing they have?

The Brits were in a fire fight and they could get no air cover or artily? And they burn their hand on the machine gun?

[Cannoneer No. 4]

ping

[GMMAC]

So all are aware, the Globe is - to say the least - a less than credible news source.
It's more or less Canada's answer to the Washington Post & has long been effectively the leading mouthpiece of the Martin/Ignatieff as well as the radical feminist/homosexual wings of the federal Liberal Party.

[stylin19a]

Acting on a tip from an old woman, he allowed his men to search for a rumoured cache of Taliban weapons in a village about five kilometres north of town

next time, tell the "old woman" she's going with you...if she panics, don't go.

This time, go find that "old woman" and ....

[RGSpincich]

This article is not as bad as the headline would indicate. When you are a sitting duck, getting out of the line of fire is a good thing. The two firing Taliban that suddenly appeared on the Brits flank were killed by the Brits.

[Dilbert56]

Ooohh, the “resurgent” Taliban. Every week sixty or seventy of these scum get waxed by coalition forces. They launch a couple of mortar rounds and suddenly they’re immortal supermen. You can’t get e job in the MSM without your Taliban Kneepads.

[Pikachu_Dad]

That is pretty pathetic.

They don’t even want to try again with planned airstrikes and arty.