So the Brits got a taste of what Afghanis are fed every day (which we rarely hear about in the shit MSM).
Good! How's it feel to be bombed, Brits?
"U.S. Bomb Dropped; 3 British Soldiers Die" by DAVID ROHDE
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Aug. 24 — Three British soldiers died in southern Afghanistan on Thursday in an apparent friendly-fire episode involving a bomb dropped by an American plane, British officials said Friday.
The deaths... came after local Afghan and some British officials had already criticized the American military for what they called excessive use of airstrikes in Afghanistan.
At around 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, the British soldiers called for air support after coming under fire near the town of Kajaki in the southern province of Helmand. The soldiers were on a patrol to disrupt Taliban insurgents, the British military said.
American planes in the area dropped a single bomb that landed near the British patrol.
The British Defense Ministry said in a statement:
“Close air support was called in from two U.S. F-15 aircraft to repel the enemy. One bomb was dropped, and it is believed the explosion killed the three soldiers.”
Two other soldiers were wounded.
[Two planes and only one bomb, huh? Pffffftttt!]
Last month, a British officer in Helmand complained that American Special Operations forces in the area used airstrikes too often, killing civilians and alienating the population. The officer requested that American forces leave the area.
Since then, British and American officials have played down the tensions over airstrikes in Helmand. A British official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that American Special Operations forces had played no role in Thursday’s bombing.
Afghan officials and human rights groups have also complained that American airstrikes have killed dozens of Afghan civilians this year.
American officials have said they take precautions to prevent civilian deaths and have accused the Taliban of using civilians as human shields.
The report of the deaths received prominent coverage in the British news media on Friday."
[Yup, lost westerners get plenty of air time, but not the thousands upon thousands of their murdered victims!
Basically why I am sick of the war coverage]
"3 British Soldiers Killed by U.S. Bomb" by Chris Brummitt/Associated Press August 25, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan -- A U.S. warplane mistakenly dropped a 500-pound bomb on British troops after they called for air support in Afghanistan, killing three soldiers and seriously wounding two others in an accident that could re-ignite debate about America's heavy use of air power. British officials said they were investigating the error, which comes amid growing concerns about civilian deaths from U.S. airstrikes.
The troops were patrolling northwest of Kajaki, a militant hotspot in southern Helmand province, when they were attacked by Taliban fighters, Britain's Ministry of Defense said in a statement:
"During the intense engagement that ensued, close air support was called in from two U.S. F15 aircraft to repel the enemy. One bomb was dropped and it is believed the explosion killed the three soldiers."
In Washington, a Pentagon official said initial reports were that the airstrike was called in by a British forward air controller. The forward controller is usually the person on the ground, who has the target area in sight and directs an aircraft to attack, giving target coordinates and ensuring that friendly forces are not in the way.
The incident has to be carefully investigated to try to learn where the problem arose, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record. That is, officials have to try to determine whether human error, either by the troops calling in the coordinates for the airstrike or by pilots dropping the bomb, was behind the accident. They will also need to examine whether equipment failure, either in the ground or in the air, was a factor.
[Will they investigate how many Afghanis were killed?]
British Defense Secretary Des Browne declined to speculate on the cause of the friendly fire, which took place about 6:30 p.m. But he said he did not want "to get into a situation where we are blaming each other."
Browne told Sky News: "As a matter of fact, U.S. air support has saved our people's lives on many, many occasions, particularly over the last four months in that very theater. The nature of this war-fighting is such that there are comparatively small margins of error involved."
The British solders were traveling through typical Afghan terrain -- semi-agricultural, with many ditches and walled compounds where insurgents can hide -- when they came under attack, the British army said. It was unclear whether the soldiers were on foot or traveling in a vehicle.
[Yup, just minding their own business on patrol when they were attacked!
Notice how the West never attacks anybody, even though we go all these places we are not wanted?]
Afghanistan's rugged terrain and poor roads, as well as a shortage of ground troops, have forced the United States to rely heavily on airpower in the fight against Taliban and other militants. Airstrikes have led to the deaths of hundreds of civilians over the last two years, undermining efforts to win the trust of Afghans.
[Yeah, those darn Afghanis FORCED US to INCINERATE them with MASS-MURDERING AIR BOMBS, yup!]
Thursday's bombing was not the first case of friendly fire in Afghanistan.
In 2002, four Canadian soldiers were killed when an American F-16 pilot on a night patrol dropped a 500-pound bomb on Canadian troops conducting a live-fire training exercise near the southern city of Kandahar. The pilot apparently mistook the Canadians for enemy forces and thought he was acting in self-defense, U.S. officials have said.
In August 2006, a bomb mistakenly dropped by coalition aircraft killed 10 Afghan police officers on a patrol in the country's southeast. The cause of that incident has never been established.
In the most famous friendly fire case of the Afghan conflict, Pat Tillman, the former NFL player who became an Army Ranger, was killed in April 2004 by fellow troops near the Pakistani border."
[And those are the only ones that have been reported.
How many other "mistakes" have been covered up the last six years?]
