Here’s the BBC’s article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7569942.stm
Afghan ambush kills French troops
Ten French soldiers have been killed in an ambush by Taleban fighters east of the Afghan capital, Kabul, the French president’s office has confirmed.A further 21 French soldiers were wounded in one of the heaviest casualty tolls suffered by international peacekeepers in Afghanistan.
The soldiers were part of the Nato-led peacekeeping International Security Assistance Force (Isaf).
President Nicolas Sarkozy will go to Afghanistan shortly, his office says.
News of the deaths is bound to provoke anger back home where around two-thirds of French people say they are opposed to any French involvement in the conflict, the BBC’s Emma-Jane Kirby reports from Paris.
But President Sarkozy insisted France remained committed to the fight against terrorism and that the mission in Afghanistan would continue.
‘Extremely violent’
The French troops had been caught up in fighting that started on Monday in the area of Sirobi some 50 km (30 miles) east of Kabul.
DEADLIEST ATTACKS ON ISAF
19 August 2008: 10 French troops killed and 21 wounded in ambush east of Kabul
13 July 2008: Nine US soldiers killed and 15 wounded in attack on base in Kunar
28 June 2005: Rocket-propelled grenade downs US helicopter in Kunar, killing all 16 servicemen aboardThey were killed “during a joint reconnaissance mission with the Afghan national army”, Mr Sarkozy said in a statement.
“Serious measures, notably in the air, were taken to support and extricate our men caught in an extremely violent ambush.”
The French leader said his visit to Afghanistan would be to show his support for French troops there.
France has 3,000 troops deployed in Afghanistan. Tuesday’s deaths bring to 24 the number killed since 2002, the French news agency AFP reports.
“The French were ambushed in a village after they left the Ozbin valley,” an Afghan intelligence officer told the BBC.
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By: Merlock - 27th August 2008 at 07:52
My sympathies to the French people, they have always had my greatest respect.
Thank you, Pete.
There’s been a few comments made in the UK that brunt of the fighting is mainly down to the US, Brits and Canadians and that other nations involved, from the EU in particular, haven’t been prepared to do the business.
Well… France has been in Afghanistan since the beginning, and had already suffered some casulaties, but it’s he first time it happens in such importance…
Now, more than one week later, some informations make clear that the soldiers made some mistake that lead them to the ambush (the most important was the lack of previous recon mission…).
Apparently, some decision has been taken to avoid such event, with the sending of drones and spec force (that were currentley unavailable! :mad:) in the country…
I would mostly agree with your point of vie, although in a less infuriated manner. Since I learned that French troops were to be sent in Afghanistan, I expected some casualties (but not that important!), the trouble is that in France a majority of people “don’t see the point” in being at war in Afghanistan and this could become a major internal politic issue…
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By: Pete Truman - 21st August 2008 at 17:10
My sympathies to the French people, they have always had my greatest respect.
There’s been a few comments made in the UK that brunt of the fighting is mainly down to the US, Brits and Canadians and that other nations involved, from the EU in particular, haven’t been prepared to do the business.
Whether this is true or not, I wouldn’t like to say, however, if the scum Taliban have picked up on this, they may have started to target possibly less well prepared troops, such as the French, and don’t be insulted by that, if they haven’t been in the firing line as much as our blokes from Colchester have been, then it must make all the difference.
Quite frankly they should pull all the troops out, nuke, napalm and carpet bomb the entire place and make it even more of a s### hole than it obviously is, I wouldn’t lose any sleep over such a drastic solution, what can these beardy weirdies offer to the world apart from the selfish, unnatural subjugation of women, idealogically crap religious domination, heroin production and blowing themselves up, can’t the latter be encouraged, yet controlled safely, we could herd them into the stadiums where they shot women who were ‘guilty’ of being raped by these scumbags and give them a bit of Semtex to play with, that would be nice, Al Jazzerah would have a field day, they love all that stuff.
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August 19, 2008 at 1:32 pm