Category: Terror War

Stars & Stripes reports that the folks at Bagram’s Craig Joint Theater Hospital is gearing up in anticipation for more casualties in Afghanistan as more troops arrive, ROE restrictions loosen and air strikes increase;

“The more combat you have, the more casualties you’re likely to have,” said Col. Walter M. “Sparky” Matthews, head of the 455th Expeditionary Medical Group. He oversees the military’s medical task force responsible for non-special-operations medical teams here. “It would be unwise for us not to plan for an increase in casualty numbers.”

The medical system is ready and able to treat more wounded than it has been, even without added staff, Matthews said, because the number of casualties is normally pretty low. The Bagram hospital was quiet on a recent afternoon, and its emergency and operating rooms were empty. A few Afghans in civilian attire and bandages sat in a waiting area.

“It would also be unwise for us to assume that the low numbers of U.S. casualties that we’ve had in the recent past would remain that way,” he said. “We’re certain that increase is going to come. We just don’t know to what degree.”

Colonel Matthews says that his traffic through the hospital has a 99% chance of survival.

Officials would not say how many patients were Afghan troops, but there were just 113 U.S. casualties in fighting in the country last year.

The motto on rounds here is “no one dies today,” and as they’ve come close to achieving that goal, deaths have become so rare that Matthews said it’s unnerving when someone does not survive.

My son was at Bagram a few years ago and he told me that they treated more Taliban than allied troops during his tour.

Associated Press reports that the United States conducted an airstrike on Syrian government troops in eastern Syria killing about a hundred of Assad’s supporters.

The U.S. official said the U.S. launched the airstrikes after as many as 500 attackers began what appeared to be a coordinated assault on U.S.-backed forces known as the Syrian Democratic Forces who were accompanied by U.S. advisers in Deir el-Zour province.

The official said the strikes were in self-defense after the pro-government forces began firing artillery and tank rounds at the SDF. About 100 of the attackers were killed, the official said.

The Syrian government claimed that the targeted fighters were actually “tribal fighters” who were engaged with ISIS militants.

The air strike comes after the Syrian government was accused by Amnesty International of using chlorine gas on the town of Saraqib last Sunday, according to Fox News.

Amnesty International, in a press release issued earlier Tuesday, said that testimony gathered from the scene showed evidence that the Syrian government internationally used banned chemical weapons.

“Once again, Syria’s government has shown its utter contempt for international law by deploying illegal chemical weapons,” Lynn Malouf said in the press release. Malouf is the Director of Research for the Middle East at Amnesty International.

Fox News also reports that the rockets used in the attack were made in Germany;

The rockets used in the recent chemical attacks in Syria that poisoned dozens of civilians, including children, were “Made in Germany,” Bild reports.

Following the attacks in East Ghouta, a suburb outside Damascus with a population of 400,000, the remains of Iranian 107-millimeter rockets with the company logo of Krempel and the product signature “Made in Germany” were found at the sites, Bild reported Monday.

The Syrian civil war hasn’t become any easier to manage with the end of ISIS, the US should focus on a diplomatic exit strategy for Assad and his supporters.

AFP reports that a US citizen who also has Saudi Arabian dual-citizenship is being held in Iraq, known only as John Doe, is in legal limbo while the Trump Administration wrestles with his status. He surrendered to Syrian rebels last year, about five months ago. The ACLU is fighting the US government for access to Mr Doe;

The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit to get access to the prisoner. The government refused to provide any information about him — his name, age, or origins.

They termed him an enemy fighter and claimed he showed no desire for legal representation.

Hearings on his status between September and January were surreal: government lawyers argued he had never expressed the desire for legal representation, though they would not say if he had been asked; that the ACLU had no standing to represent him because they had not been requested; and that the ACLU could not represent the man because they did not know his identity.

In January the judge, Tanya Chutkan, rejected government arguments and ordered them to grant the ACLU access.

ACLU’s national political director, Faiz Shakir, also complained that Trump used the word “America” too many times in the State of the Union Address, so their claims for this un-American ring hollow.

Mr Doe gave up any chance he had for US Constitutional rights when he joined ISIS. In fact, when they execute him, he doesn’t even have a right to a US-made bullet or rope.

AFP reports that at least 25 people were killed in an assault on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan. Four bodies have been identified as Americans.

Visitors to the upmarket hotel, which sits on a hilltop overlooking the Afghan capital, have described glaring security breaches before the assailants went on a bloody rampage targeting guests.

Bags were not checked, scanners did not work and body searches were non-existent, according to witnesses.

During the terrifying ordeal insurgents armed with Kalashnikovs and suicide vests went from room to room searching for foreigners, survivors and a security source have told AFP.

CNN reports that one of the Americans was Glenn Selig, spokesman for Trump campaign adviser Rick Gates.

Selig represented Gates in recent months, as Gates faces criminal charges in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Selig also played a role in promoting a legal defense fund for Gates in December.

Hindustan Times reports that Afghan intelligence services tell them that the explosives came from Pakistan;

The National Directorate of Security (NDS) said it had found the vehicle used by the attackers to enter the hotel compound on Saturday. Twenty-two people, including 14 foreigners, were killed by the attackers before the siege was ended by security forces on Sunday.

“The explosive materials seized in the vehicle shows that the material is made in Pakistan,” the NDS said in a statement, according to Tolo News.

The statement added the explosives used by the attackers were produced by Biafo Industries Limited, a private company based in Islamabad.

An unnamed Afghan security official told Pajhwok Afghan News agency on Wednesday that three militants had driven to the hotel with the van full of Pakistan-made explosives but failed to detonate them.

A team of detectives seized the van and used jammers to disable the remote-control device the attackers had, the official said.