Two US soldiers were reported killed Wednesday in a firefight in Afghanistan. This brings the number of US soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year to nine.
Details are somewhat conflicting, with the two soldiers, part of a
Special Forces team, killed by small arms fire in a fight with the
Taliban. US officials claimed the fight was in southern Uruzgan
Province, while the Taliban said it was in eastern Wardak Province.
It isn’t clear why the two sides offered different accounts of where the
fight happened, and it’s worth noting that the two provinces in
question don’t even border one another. Early reports suggested that the
Taliban had ambushed the US troops.
With 9 US troops killed in only the first half of 2019, their casualties
are tracking a multi-year high. 13 were killed in 2018, and 11 more
were killed in 2017. Though this is below the highs of early in the
war’s first decade, the tolls have been rising over the past couple of
years.
This reflects the Trump Administration’s decision to escalate the war in
2017. The war continues to rage, and while talks are ongoing for the US
to leave the country, US officials are quick to insist no deals have
been reached.
In a battle of the rebels versus the Imperial Storm Troopers, looks like the rebels won.