Five Georgia National Guardsmen were injured – one seriously – in a suicide bombing attack on a joint U.S.-Afghani combat outpost near the Pakistani border last week, military officials have confirmed.
The seriously injured soldier has been sent to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington for treatment. Another soldier is being evacuated to Fort Benning for care. Three other soldiers were treated and returned to duty. All five soldiers are part of the Newnan-based Bravo Company of the 2nd Battalion, 121st Infantry, which is part of Georgia’s 48th Brigade Combat Team.
Military officials declined to release the identities of the soldiers who were injured in the blast Thursday, but they said their families have been notified. The attack occurred after sundown at an outpost in the Paktia province, about 35 miles east of the provincial capital Gardez, according to the military. The AP reported that Taliban forces claimed responsibility Friday for the attack.
A similar attack occurred in Afghanistan on Dec. 30, when a Jordanian suicide bomber detonated his explosives on a CIA base in Khost, killing himself and seven CIA employees. The CIA had cultivated the Jordanian in hopes of obtaining information about al-Qaida’s second in command, Ayman al-Zawahri. But the attacker turned out to be a double agent.
The 48th Brigade is training Afghanistan’s police and security forces, a major part of U.S. plans to rebuild the country. About 3,200 soldiers from the Macon-based brigade deployed to Afghanistan starting in February of last year. They are expected to return home in waves starting on or about Feb. 23. The last group of soldiers is expected to return in early April. Eight of the brigade's soldiers have been killed in action in Afghanistan
Lt. Col. George Fisher, executive officer for the 48th’s rear detachment, said the soldier who was most seriously injured in Thursday’s attack arrived at Walter Reed late Sunday night and his family was traveling to see him.
Robert Stokely, co-chairman of the family readiness group for Bravo Company of the 2nd Battalion, 121st Infantry, said he and a colleague have talked to relatives of the injured soldiers.
"All the families are doing well. Obviously, they were shaken by the news," Stokely said. "The consensus is we are glad our soldiers are alive and that this was not worse than what it was."
Enemies have been attacking each other’s bases for centuries. But suicide bombings on bases are a relatively new experience for the U.S. military, said John Pike, director of globalsecurity.org, a military information Web site.
In December of 2004, for example, a suicide bomber infiltrated a U.S. military base in Mosul, Iraq, and detonated his explosives in the mess tent, killing 22 people -- nearly all of them Americans -- and wounding many others. The U.S. military said the bomber was wearing an Iraqi military uniform but was not an Iraqi soldier. Citing a report in a Saudi-owned newspaper, the Associated Press identified the bomber as a 20-year-old Saudi medical student
It’s tough for the U.S. military to defend against such attacks in Afghanistan because they are working closely with that country’s police and security forces and some foreign contractors, Pike said.
“It is certainly new for the American experience because historically U.S. troops were not engaged with populations where it was a little difficult to tell the difference between the friendlies and the enemies, particularly if they were of a martyrdom seeking persuasion,” Pike said. “Historically, you would have soldiers peeling potatoes. You would not have local nationals performing contractor-related services and you would not have this many foreign nationals getting on the base.”
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