TW: This small battle seems far more reminiscent of our troops mired amidst the VC in Vietnam than our troops dodging poorly trained insurgents in Iraq gifted in IED planting. McClatchey happened to have an embed amongst these Marines for a more detailed depiction go here.
In the longer story the Marine on scene laments the engagement rules limiting his artillery support. This is the conundrum of COIN. To succeed one must restrict the kinetics, but at the individual level restricting kinetics increases the risks for our troops. Living with that contradiction is very tough perhaps to the point of untenable.
From McClatchey:
"Four U.S. Marines died Tuesday when they walked into a well-laid ambush by insurgents in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province. Seven Afghan troops and an interpreter for the Marine commander also died in the ambush and the subsequent battle, which lasted some seven hours.
Three American service members and 14 Afghan security force members were wounded.
It was the largest number of American military trainers to die in a single incident since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.
The battle took place around the remote hamlet of Gangigal, in a valley about six miles from the Pakistani border, after local elders invited the U.S. and Afghan forces for a meeting.
American officers said there was no doubt that they'd walked into a trap, as the insurgents were dug in at the village, and had preset their weapons and their fields of fire."
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