Suicide attack on Camp Salerno successful
Stars & Stripes reports that a suicide attack on Camp Salerno near Khost, Afghanistan was completely successful in that all of the attackers were successfully killed dead.
Insurgents wearing suicide vests attacked a coalition base in Khost province Friday, according to a U.S. military official.
The insurgents attacked the base around 1 p.m. and in the ensuing battle, 14 attackers were killed, said Staff Sgt. Nicolas Morales, a spokesman for Regional Command-East. Morales said no Afghan or coalition soldiers were killed, though he would not say whether there were any injuries.
The Associated Press reports that six civilians (however AP and the Afghan Police define the word “civilians” these days) were injured.
Gen. Gula Jan, an Afghan police official who is at the scene, says it occurred at Camp Salerno. Jan says six civilians have been wounded.
Just because that one didn’t work, the Taliban should continue that strategy of attacking US forces in frontal suicide assaults. I’m sure they can be effective as soon as they work all of the bugs out. It may take a dozen or so practice runs, but don’t let the failures disillusion you, Taliban guys.
Category: Terror War
I heartily encourage rushing the nearest ECP in broad daylight with no cover on the part of the Taliban. Excellent tactic.
Further, I suggest hunter’s orange suicide vests and whistles.
Yes please! High noon is even a more successful time.
I glad the Taliban was so very successful and that they apparently have a very good sense of humor. At this rate they are a problem that will take care of itself. The only down side is it will take 1008 virgins to reward them (72 per suicide ).
Judean People’s Front crack suicide squad…ATTACK!
How do bugs, work all of the bugs out ??
Okay, I understand .
@4 – It’s the People’s Front of Judea!
I happen to know a couple guys on the base. They are from my guard unit and were in the middle of the firefight when the attack hit.
Why don’t the those infidels do us all a favor and kill themselves, if they are in such a hurry to meet Allah, by all means go ahead. They will not be missed. They are not worth our young men and women dying for!
Yeah. My sisters at that very base… not cool.. she was right in the middle of it also. Talked to her this noting though. Only one civilian death. None on the Us side (which article says, just restating it was true)
This was a stupid article. First of all, the attack was sucessful. And not because the insurgents were all killed. Of course they were killed, it was a suicide mission. Did you think they were gonna overtake the base? But they did manage to completely destroyed the DFAC, and many more buildings on base. They killed individuals and injured many more. Despite what reports say, yes people died. I filled out paperwork myself to have bodies transported out of afghanistan. This was one of the worst attacks in recent time.
…not to mention causing millions of dollars worth of damage on base. Civilians in the surrounding area were killed when their houses collapsed from the blast. The major repairs to the base will be a logistical nightmare.
I like to party.
I as well as others are working fast to send care pkgs. to you, friends, family and organizations are being contacted to help! As my Son would say” We got your backs” STAY SAFE GUYS!!!
My cousin died in this attack (these deaths still not reported by the media)..there WERE American deaths…there’s nothing funny about that!
Why is everyone saying no American’s were killed? My nephew was killed in this very attack. Our family has already been notified of his death. No, there is nothing funny at all about this.
Glenda & Carol – The S&S reports only minor casualties? Report was wrong?
Either we’ve been told wrong that our family member died in this attack or the reports are wrong…We would like it to be that we have been told wrong, that this is a mistake. But at this point, it sounds as if his death is not being reported to the media…also, he was a civilian contracted to work on the base…
I’m not sure who I’m talking to here…don’t want to cause a stir..but we have been told our family member died in this event.
TSO: why would the report say only minor casualties and why would the media not mention American deaths on the camp? While he was a civilian,he had worked at the camp for years. Do they not want others to know they have contracted personnel? Could we have been notified in error?? I would think not….but would like that to be the case….
Carol, Causing a stir is exactley what we all should do. The media does not want to report deaths there because of the negative effect on the Obama machine. They want to keep us “civilians” ( I being a veteran) in the dark as much as possible. I certainly understand withholding the names but reporting “no deaths” is a slap in the face to us all.
The news media normally does not report civilian contractor deaths. Just not flashly enough. No flags lining the street when his hearse goes by. The public at large will take no notice.
Speaking for myself,I am very sorry for your loss.
Carol and Glenda – please be assured that none of us here finds any humor in the death of an American or would we wish to contribute to the pain family members must already be in.
Please keep us as informed as you are comfortable in doing. We take no joy is discovering yet another potential misrepresentation by the media, the administration, or whoever particularly when it involves casualties.
With the exception of a couple of idiots who post here from time to time, you are among people who respect all who are contributing to the GWOT.
Larry, Harp1034, and OWB, Thank you for your reponses. They help.
It is disturbing to receive word a family member died in such an attack and then read media reports that there were no American casualties. My guess is, he was not the only one….just a feeling. He was probably in a building with other civilian workers. It was during the night, so most were probably in bed. We’re still waiting for more information. No idea when his body will be returned to the states…..
Echoing harp1034, I’ve never seen much attention placed on contractor casualties since 2001, unless there was morbid media sensationalism to the story. This apparently remains the case today. Most aren’t carried on any unit PERSTAT, so I don’t ‘think’ DoD has any requirement to report them as they would servicemembers.
I’m sorry for your families loss Carol and Glenda.
This does help us understand, while it does hurt that the media cannot be bothered with reporting it…maybe they haven’t been told??? Wondering if the company that he worked for wants it kept quiet too…it might decrease there personnel if the real danger were known…just a thought.
Just wondering, why does the military need the civilian workers? I know they have people skilled in many areas in the military.
Thank you all for your condolences btw
Miss Carol, first things first: Mine and my wife’s sincerest condolences go out for you and your family’s loss. You will find the majority of commentator’s here will be supportive. As for your question why civilians are being employed on the bases over there. This is what I believe, Big Army & Big Marines learned a lesson during Vietnam about hiring locals or even letting them on base. The villagers of Vietnam were often enemy sympathizers and known to gather intel that was useful to the NVA & Viet Cong.
Again, we are sorry for your families loss. Your cousin had to have been a very caring and brave individual willing to be present anywhere near a battlefield. Keep us updated.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/world/asia/afghan-war-risks-are-shifting-to-contractors.html
Thanks, carol. While not really explaining why it is being done, that article does shed some light on the issue.
The use of civilians working with or for the military has been going on for a long time. I became aware of the increasing numbers of civilian contractors on military bases in the early 80’s. Didn’t fully understand it then and still don’t.
May we hope that in the case of casualty reporting that most of it is simply humans trying to do the least amount of paperwork to get their jobs done? (No, I am not buying that totally, but do understand that most of us look for the easiest ways to get by or around whatever it is that faces us.)
He wasn’t the only one that fell that day… it is no laughing manner. I have soldiers that are there in Salerno.
Currently in Afghanistan
Carol, Glenda – I also offer my condolences to you and your family.
OWB, streetsweeper: for what it’s worth, IMO the reason for the increased reliance on contractors is twofold. First, there are critical shortages where developing military expertise takes too long. That IMO explains the first 3-4 years after 2001. But that justification IMO wears thin after about 2004 or 2005.
The second reason – and one that truly torques me – is in my view crass politics. As harp1034 noted above, the media (and, unfortunately, the American public) simply doesn’t react the same way to civilian deaths as it does to uniformed military deaths during wartime. Both parties know this.
This therefore gives the political leadership a politically expedient way to “ease the (political) pain” associated with a war: civilianize every position possible. This has the effect of trading politically costly uniformed casualties for much less politically costly civilian and contractor ones. It also avoids the politically costly decision of increasing the uniformed military’s authorized end strength.
Call me cynical if you like. But IMO, if we were being honest about this, we’d have largely eliminated contractors in bona fide combat zones (like Iraq and Afghanistan – other than perhaps Pakistan/Yemen/the Kuwait-Iraq border region, the rest of SW/Central Asia doesn’t qualify and should IMO not be designated as combat zones) by about 2005. The fact that we didn’t tells me that leadership – across the board – made a conscious decision to trade politically expensive uniformed casualties for less politically expensive civilian ones.
If we’re fighting a war, IMO outside a few selected areas and specialties it should be fought by people in uniform. Period.
Carol, I have a bit of insight as to why we rely so heavily on Contractors in theater. My insight isn’t unique, as others here would verify the same. and for full disclosure I am a deployable Contractor.
Since 2001/2, DoD has relied heavily on Commercial Off The Shelf [COTS] equipment and technology, most of it license based. Since these items and programs aren’t in the DoD inventory, they often aren’t included in the institutional learning process for those in uniform, though I believe this has been changing somehwat. So a unit in theater using this equipment needs deployed Field Service Representatives [FSR], and in many cases, operators and analysts to fill this gap. There are also a myriad of special programs, with a probable shelf life of how ever long we stay in theater. These aren’t projected to be permanent, so again are not included in the institutional pipeline for education or logistics. They tend to have uniformed leadership, but rely heavily on Contractors.
And that doesn’t begin to touch on the virtual army of contractors who fulfill roles that free up warfighters to focus on the mission rather than menial support.
Thank you. All of your explanations do help to understand.
In simple terms, this comment from an email helped simplify the explanation for the “need” to hire contractors”:
since last Friday, there have been scores of attacks and many lives lost. I doubt the press would be able to keep track of actual numbers, much less civilians.
“There will always be a need for contractors. There have to be people who know the products. This frees up military resources for military activity. ** has a large presence wherever their products are deployed. As do all the other defense contractors. ”
Also, family doing research says, “Since Friday there have been scores of attacks and many lives lost…doubt the media could keep up with all of them.”
I don’t believe the average citizen realizes how many attacks there are and how many die daily. We just don’t get it.
Thank you all for you comments!
>ME: so it is as we suspected, others did die? Would no mention of deaths mean that only contracted civilians died?
While the numbers are much greater these days than they ever were before, the concept is not new at all. An uncle of mine was a civilian contractor during WWII. He was a very specialized kind of engineer and was much more valuable to the war effort in that capacity than in any other.
Those sorts of situations I completely understand. As I do the critical civilian jobs that were exempted from the draft. But in both intances, these were fairly small numbers of individuals.
@ #35 That is a reasonable conclusion to draw, BUT since we don’t really have much data from which to extrapolate, I would be very careful about going anywhere in haste with that conclusion.
Use it as a reason to do more research? Sure. Asking questions is good. Learning the truth is also good.
But right now, I would caution that you are in the raw grief part of the grieving process. Don’t forget that some questions can wait a little while for answers.
In spite of it all, each of the civilian contractors who have served did so voluntarily. That decision may or may not have been the one we would have made, or the results we might have wanted to see, but the choice was theirs. That is the kind of freedom we all served to protect.
Actually, there was a news report from June 1, 2012 which may be germain here:
http://www.voanews.com/content/nato-base-attacked-in-afghanistan/1145979.html
http://defensebaseactcomp.wordpress.com/2012/06/11/john-kirkland-civilian-contractor-killed-in-afghanistan/
[…] on FOB Salerno was misreported June 17th, 2012 Back on June 1st we reported that scores of Taliban were killed when they attacked an outpost in Afghanistan named FOB Salerno. […]
Actually you don’t know who you are fighting with.The mujahideen loves death more than you love for this life.
Yeah yeah, typical muslim extremist rhetoric,. Many of us who have served in southwest asia understand EXACTLY who we are fighting. Most assholes here claiming to be mujahideen are classic socio/psychopaths with their extreme interpretations of the muslim religion. Now, as for your statement, it’s quite irrelevant since we’re still here, and hundreds of thousands of mujahideen are not. Now that we got that cleared up, don’t you have some school girls to throw acid on?
American is an arrogant beast in this planet earth.Can’t see the different between principal and rhetoric because they are always be a drunken master.The pussy and a ass hole make no different to their bloody fucking aggressor cock.An atheist to claimed that they understand about another people religion is a big drunken fucking liar.
Yes Ahmad, what you’re posting here is RHETORIC.
carol@22 you said he died during the night while in bed but the attack was at 1pm???
I was right the at the Dfac when this incident occur,I saw everyone running towards the bunker but i knew not work,These guys Tallibans are stupid,they think that 14 people can capture the base but they were and get killed,,They are in hurry to meet their Allah,,,
I was right the at the Dfac when this incident occur,I saw everyone running towards the bunker but i knew that would not work and i hide myself on the hescos,These guys Tallibans are stupid,they think that 14 people can capture the whole base but they were wrong and get killed,,They are in hurry to meet their Allah,,,
This is war zone,shits can happen at any time,i was right there at Dfac,14 guys thinking to take over the base which is stupid,these guys are crazy,this happens when someone tries to destroy our base,,
!!!!!!!YOU GET KILLED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So think about it….
there are many US army came back from iraq and afghanistan suffers mental disturb. why? because they are trainned to be heros to the US people and protect their country….not to invade, kill innocents and destroy other people country.
You can give 1000 sweet reasons to rasionalize the invasion but the truth is that it is wrong against humanity and civilization.
Those talibans fight till death because whether u stay at home or support the invader or betray ur country or staying wealth in US, one day death will come without delay when your time is coming.
So better die with honor and in the name of God. They believed the lifeafter is much more foreverlasting rather than life in this world.
No matter what ur belief is, can anyone deny that death will be in front of your door one day? What will happen after you die? Think about it.
i have seen the video in youtube by the taliban thay say many amarican soldiers were died in that attack