Christmas in Kabul, Troops Away from Home

Troops celebrate Christmas in Kabul with turkey, cake and stocking caps 
Stars and Stripes
By Heath Druzin
Published: December 25, 2015

A U.S. soldier at Christmas dinner Friday at Resolute support headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan. HEATH DRUZIN/STARS AND STRIPES

KABUL, Afghanistan — In a sign of how long America has been at war, Navy Chief Tiffany Voels, 35, has to go way back to 2002 for her first of four Christmases downrange. Back then she was on a ship in support of operations in Afghanistan. “I knew I’d still be in the service in 2015, but I didn’t think I’d be in Afghanistan,” she said on Friday after sitting down to Christmas dinner at Resolute Support headquarters in Kabul. read more here

Hours-long gunbattle with NATO security forces at Kabul Airport

Kabul Airport Attack: Gunfire, Explosions Reported
Huffington Post
Posted: 06/09/2013

(From AP)KABUL, Afghanistan — At least five heavily armed insurgents were engaged in an hours-long gunbattle with security forces on the perimeter of Afghanistan's main airport Monday after they tried to attack NATO's airport headquarters with rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles and at least one large bomb, the army and police said.

The airport was closed to all civilian air traffic because of the attack, an airport official said. It was unclear if the attack had damaged facilities inside the airport itself.

Kabul police chief Gen. Mohammad Ayub Salangi said at least two insurgents had been killed so far. There were no casualties among police or civilians, he added.
read more here

Five US soldiers killed in Afghanistan bomb blast

Five US soldiers killed in Afghanistan bomb blast
Deaths – thought to have occurred in Kandahar province – take number of US troops killed in Afghanistan this year to 32
Associated Press in Kabul
Saturday 4 May 2013

Five US service members were killed on Saturday by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, the latest deadly attack against international troops since the Taliban announced the start of their spring offensive this week.

The coalition did not disclose the location of the blast, but Javeed Faisal, a spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province, said the coalition patrol hit the roadside bomb in Maiwand district of the province, the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban.

Captain Luca Carniel, a public affairs official for the US-led coalition in Kabul, confirmed that all five were Americans. With the deaths, 47 members of the coalition have been killed so far this year including 32 Americans.
read more here

Donation-based hospital rescues Afghanistan's wounded

Donation-based hospital rescues Afghanistan's wounded
By Clarissa Ward
December 13, 2012

(CBS News) KABUL - In Afghanistan, an American soldier and two Afghans were killed by a car bomb Thursday.

It happened near the U.S. airbase in Kandahar, a few hours after Defense Secretary Leon Panetta left there to meet with Afghan President Karzai.

Taliban attacks have grown more frequent, causing a sharp rise in civilian casualties. There's one place where many of those lives are saved or lost.

The non-profit trauma hospital goes by one name: Emergency. It offers free treatment to the bruised and bloodied victims of this conflict. Every patient who arrives there is a casualty of war.

Dr. Gino Strada is the chain-smoking Italian cardiologist who founded emergency in 1999. He told CBS News that he'll take in patients, regardless of whether they're Taliban or whatever their political affiliations may be.

"Otherwise, you're not a doctor anymore," he said, "then you're a judge."
read more here

Wounded Times gave you the story first again

Why do I spend so many hours tracking stories across the country? Because the big boy media companies don't seem to care enough to do it. Wounded Times does it again! It took Associated Press all this time to pick up on this story but Wounded Times had it posted back in February. This happens all the time. Because veterans and the troops are all that is posted here, you get the stories first. How about you email them and ask them what took so long to report this.

Friday, February 3, 2012
Fallen Marine Sgt. William Stacey's last letter, "it was all worth it" This is what makes them so different from the rest of us. This last letter to Sgt. Stacey's family tells them that for all the talk for and against what he was doing, he believed he was making a difference in this world. He didn't serve to do anything other than do some good for someone. We can talk about everything else but in the end, this is what it all comes down to. They are willing to die for each other, surrender whatever comforts they have at home to travel around the world but once they do, most of the country moves on, forgetting about them.

Here's the AP story or you can click the link above for the way it was first reported.

Originally published May 28, 2012 at 5:45 AM | Page modified May 28, 2012 at 3:13 PM

Fallen Marine's letter marks Memorial Day in Kabul U.S. Marine Sgt. William Stacey was killed earlier this year by a homemade bomb in southern Afghanistan, a tragedy for which he prepared by writing a letter to his family explaining why he was fighting that was to be read in the event of his death.

By SEBASTIAN ABBOT
Associated Press
read more here

Wearing Afghan Uniform, Gunman Kills U.S. Soldier

UPDATE
Men in Afghan police uniforms kill 2 NATO troops

Wearing Afghan Uniform, Gunman Kills U.S. Soldier
By GRAHAM BOWLEY
Published: May 11, 2012

KABUL, Afghanistan — An attacker wearing an Afghan Army uniform opened fire on American soldiers in remote eastern Afghanistan on Friday, killing one before escaping, in what appeared to be another in a recent string of assaults on coalition soldiers by their Afghan partners.

The shooting took place early Friday in a camp run by the Afghan National Army where the American troops had gone to train Afghan soldiers, said Attaullah, the police chief of the Ghaziabad district in Kunar Province near the Pakistan border.
read more here

2 blasts kill 8 U.S. troops in Afghan attacks on foot patrol

2 blasts kill 8 U.S. troops in Afghan attacks
By Deb Riechmann - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday May 27, 2011 6:20:19 EDT

KABUL, Afghanistan — New details that emerged Friday show that eight U.S. troops who were killed while on foot patrol in southern Afghanistan the day before were hit by two consecutive blasts, with one explosion going off as troops rushed to aid those wounded from the first blast, NATO said.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack in the southern, Kandahar province.

It was the deadliest day for NATO in Afghanistan since April 27, when a veteran Afghan military pilot killed eight U.S. troops and an American civilian contractor at Kabul airport.

The Kandahar attack started as the troops began to inspect a suspicious object they found while patrolling on foot in the mountainous Shorabak district, 12 miles (19 kilometers) from the Pakistan border. The first explosion wounded some of the service members, while the second came as others tried to help the injured, NATO said.
read more here
2 blasts kill 8 U.S. troops in Afghan attacks

Forward Operating Base Chapman hit by suicide bomber, 8 killed

UPDATE
Suicide bomber attacks CIA base in Afghanistan, killing at least 8 Americans
By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 31, 2009; 8:34 AM

A suicide bomber infiltrated a CIA base in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing at least eight Americans in what is believed to be the deadliest single attack on U.S. intelligence personnel in the eight-year-long war and one of the deadliest in the agency's history, U.S. officials said.

The attack represented an audacious blow to intelligence operatives at the vanguard of U.S. counterterrorism operations in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, killing officials whose job involves plotting strikes against the Taliban, al-Qaeda and other extremist groups that are active on the frontier between the two nations. The facility that was targeted -- Forward Operating Base Chapman -- is in the eastern Afghan province of Khost, which borders North Waziristan, the Pakistani tribal area that is believed to be al-Qaeda's home base.

U.S. sources confirmed that all the dead and injured were civilians and said they believed that most, if not all, were CIA employees or contractors. At least one Afghan civilian also was killed, the sources said.
read more here
Suicide bomber attacks CIA base in Afghanistan

8 U.S. deaths at military base in Afghanistan
From Atia Abawi, CNN
December 30, 2009 2:18 p.m. EST
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
The victims not from the military, official says
Suicide bomber strikes forward operating base in eastern Afghanistan, military says
Attack at Forward Operating Base Chapman near the district of Khost in Khost province
Kabul, Afghanistan
(CNN) -- Eight Americans were killed in a suicide bombing Wednesday at a military base in eastern Afghanistan, according to a U.S. military official and a U.S. Embassy official.
read more here
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/12/30/afghanistan.us.casualties/

Gunmen storm UN guest house in Kabul, 12 dead

Gunmen storm UN guest house in Kabul, 12 dead
By RAHIM FAIEZ and AMIR SHAH, AP

KABUL -Taliban militants wearing suicide vests and police uniforms stormed a guest house used by U.N. staff in the heart of the Afghan capital early Wednesday, killing 12 people — including six U.N. staff. It was the biggest in a series of attacks intended to undermine next month's presidential runoff election.
A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the early morning assaults, which also included rocket attacks at the presidential palace and the city's main luxury hotel.
The chief of the United Nations mission in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, said the attack "will not deter the U.N. from continuing all its work" in the country. One of the six U.N. dead was an American, the U.S. Embassy said.
The two-hour attack on the guest house where some 20 U.N. election workers were staying sent people running and screaming outside, with some jumping out upper-story windows to escape a fire that broke out. One American man said he held off the assailants with a Kalashnikov rifle until guests were able to escape.
read more here
Gunmen storm UN guest house in Kabul

US Embassy fires guards shown in lewd acts

Watchdog fears contractor may impede investigation of Kabul ‘hazing’


Share on Facebook By David Edwards and Muriel Kane

Published: September 4, 2009
Breaking: US Embassy fires guards shown in lewd acts

Earlier this week, a watchdog group revealed flagrant misbehavior by employees of the private security contractor ArmorGroup North America assigned to guard the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Photographs received from whistleblowers showed “hazing” that included simulated sex acts and guards urinating on one another.

The US Embassy in Kabul stated on Friday that it had already fired eight of the guards shown in the photographs, while two others had resigned, and that the contractor’s local management team was also being replaced. ArmorGroup’s parent corporation, Wackenhut Services, responded to inquiries by stating that it is “fully cooperating” with the Department of State in investigating the incidents.
read more here
http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/09/04/state-dept-knew-of-deviant-behavior/

7 die, 91 hurt in blast near NATO HQ in Kabul

7 die, 91 hurt in blast near NATO HQ in Kabul

By Rahim Faiez and Jason Straziuso - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Aug 15, 2009 10:29:12 EDT

KABUL — A suicide car bomb exploded Saturday outside the main gate of NATO’s headquarters five days before Afghanistan’s presidential election, killing seven and wounding 91 in the biggest attack in the Afghan capital in six months.

The bomber evaded several rings of Afghan police and detonated his explosives on the doorstep of the international military headquarters, an assault possibly aimed at sending the message that the Taliban can attack anywhere as Afghans gear up for their second-ever direct presidential election. Militants have warned Afghans not to vote and have threatened to attack voting sites.
read more here
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/08/ap_afghanistan_bombing_nato_081509/

Suicide claims life of Canadian Major in Kabul

Canadian soldier's death in Kabul a suicide: probe
19 hours ago

OTTAWA (AFP) — A Canadian soldier's recent death from a gunshot wound in the Kabul headquarters of the NATO-lead forces in Afghanistan has been deemed a suicide, the Canadian defense ministry said Monday.

After conducting a thorough investigation, the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service "has concluded that his tragic death was a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound," the defense ministry said in a statement.

"His death has been ruled a suicide."

Major Raymond Ruckpaul succumbed to a gunshot wound in his living quarters within the secure compound of the ISAF headquarters in Kabul on August 29.

click post title for the rest