The Pentagon has identified the three soldiers killed in a friendly fire incident north of Kandahar, Afghanistan, on Dec. 5.
Master Sergeant Jefferson Donald Davis, 39, of Tennessee, Sergeant First Class Daniel Henry Petithory, 32, of Cheshire, Mass., and Staff Sergeant Brian Cody Prosser, 28, of California were killed when ordinance from a B-52 fell close to their position. All were members of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group, headquartered at Ft. Campbell, Ky. Five opposition troops were killed as well.
Twenty U.S. troops were injured in the incident, which U.S. Central Command said was under investigation. Eight wounded opposition soldiers were taken by helicopter to the USS Pelelieu and 10 others were taken to the USS Bataan, both in the Arabian Sea. The wounds have been categorized as “moderate to severe.” Seventeen of the U.S. wounded received medical care in the area of operations, but three remained at the forward operating base where they were stationed and are expected to return to duty soon.
“I’d like to recognize the brave service of those soldiers that were killed and wounded in Afghanistan yesterday. Our condolences go to their families and their loved ones,” Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said. “These men were engaged in a noble and important cause, and their families have every right to be proud, as we all are, of their commitment and their sacrifice.”
General Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reviewed Wednesday’s attacks.
“We did have yesterday approximately 85 aircraft conducting strike operations. I have three videos for you,” Pace said. “The first is a video on a compound where Taliban troops were believed to have been holed up.”
The U.S.-led coalition is also focusing its weapons on the mountainous area known as Tora Bora, where cave and tunnel systems may provide hiding areas to eastern Taliban forces and al Qaeda terrorists.
“In the Tora Bora cave complex, just like everywhere else that we’ve assisted the opposition groups in Afghanistan, we have begun to provide support to the opposition groups that are moving through the valleys in the Tora Bora complex,” Pace said. “As you know, up until this time, until just recently, we haven’t been, in fact, attacking the caves from the air. Now, as the opposition groups move their troops through that complex, we’re able to provide them the air support that they can help direct, because they’re able to see the caves that are active, they can see the caves that are not, and we’re able to provide much more direct support for them.
“So it’s unfolding in the Tora Bora area as it has in Kunduz, as it did in Mazar-e Sharif, as it continues to in Kandahar,” Pace added. “They have moved up the Tora Bora Valley in that cave complex area. As is the battlefield elsewhere, it’s very fluid, but they have, in fact, been directing their ground attacks against facilities, and we’ve been assisting them with our air support.”
While the peace process has been continuing, Rumsfeld said that no conclusion has yet been reached that would stop the war.
“There is nothing that I know of that has happened that is sufficiently mature that it would alter our general approach that has been taking place, and that has been to continue to put pressure on Kandahar, to be supportive of the forces that are opposing Kandahar, and to see that Kandahar is not reinforced, and to see that people who ought not to escape do not escape, and to encourage surrender,” Rumsfeld said. “To the extent that requires bombing, that’s what we do. And to the extent it requires interdiction, that’s what we do. So we have – we do not have any pauses in effect at the moment.”
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