Afghanistan War Updates -- August 19, 2008

Two dead bodies of suicide bombers are seen by local residents in the site where they detonated themselves in Khost city, eastern Afghanistan, on Tuesday Aug 19, 2008. A team of suicide bombers tried to storm a U.S. military base near the border with Pakistan in a daring insurgent attack on a major American installation, officials said Tuesday. Six suicide bombers attacked the base and three detonated their vests when surrounded, NATO officials said. (AP Photo/Nashanuddin Khan)

10 French Soldiers Die In Afghan Battle -- Yahoo News/AP

SUROBI, Afghanistan - Insurgents ambushed a group of French parachutists outside Kabul, sparking a battle that killed 10 of the soldiers in the biggest loss of life for international forces in combat in Afghanistan in more than three years, officials said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a team of suicide bombers tried unsuccessfully to storm a U.S. military base near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in a daring attack on a major American installation.

The French soldiers from the 8th infantry parachute regiment were on a reconnaissance mission in the Surobi district, an area known as a militant redoubt about 30 miles east of the Afghan capital.

Qazi Suliman, the district chief in Surobi, said the ambush sparked a three-hour gunbattle. French president Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed that 10 were killed and 21 wounded in the clashes.

Read more ....

More News On Afghanistan

Afghanistan clash kills 10 French soldiers -- UPI
Ten French Soldiers Killed in Ambush in Afghanistan (Update2) -- Bloomberg
10 French soldiers killed in Afghan fighting -- CNN
10 French Troops Killed in Afghanistan -- Voice Of America
US Base Attacked in Afghanistan -- Time Magazine
Suicide bombers attack US base in Afghanistan -- Yahoo News/AP
Suicide bombers try to hit U.S. base in Afghanistan -- Yahoo/Reuters
Taliban fighters try to storm US base in Afghanistan -- Yahoo News/AFP
Homicide Bombers Attack U.S. Base in Afghanistan; 13 Killed -- FOX News
Suicide Bombers Attack US Base in Afghanstan -- ABC News
British soldier killed in Afghanistan: NATO -- Yahoo News/AFP
Blast Kills 12 at U.S. Base on a Holiday for Afghans -- New York Times
US: Likely Attack in Afghanistan -- Time magazine
Attack on Afghan Independence Day Kills 10 -- FOX News
Dozens Dead In Afghan Violence -- CBS News
Four Afghan civilians killed in UK rocket attack -- Times Online
British troops kill Afghan civilians -- The Independent
Taliban 'used civilians as human shields' when British attacked -- The Telegraph
Taliban suicide bomber kills 9 Afghan civilians -- International Herald Tribune
88 die in Afghan violence ahead of Independence Day -- Daily Times (Pakistan)
7,000 extra police deployed in, around Afghan capital -- CNN
Poor Afghan Security Affecting Aid Groups -- CBS News
The Afghan women jailed for being victims of rape -- The Independent

My Comment: I mentioned last month (post here and here) that by using Pakistan as a base of operations against Afghan and Coalition troops, we can only expect an escalation in violence from the Taliban. I had also mentioned that if the Taliban attack on masse a coalition base by the end of this summer again .... this will be proof that we are now in a full scale insurgency.

Our worse fears are now realized, even though these attacks were coordinated on Afghanistan's National holiday, the breath of the number of attacks ... and the boldness to attack coalition bases .... leads to me to conclude that Afghanistan's eastern and southern provinces are now ina full scale war.