Six US soldiers were killed during an attack on an insurgent hideout near Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan, the Washington Post reports. The deaths that resulted from the helicopter-driven assault are the latest reminder of the US struggle in the isolated Kunar province. The US has lately shifted its attention away from the region—one of Afghanistan’s most violent since 2005—concentrating instead on population centers.
The assault took place near Pakistan's tribal areas, over which its government has little sway. Last summer, the same battalion killed some 150 fighters in the region; afterward, the US attempted to build an Afghan police station there. But when American troops left the area, so did the police. “The police were too scared the Taliban were going to come back and kill them,” said a US commander. “The people are still timid, and the police are timid.” Heartbreakingly, the Post notes that the wife of one of the dead soldiers was included in a November article on the stress Army spouses endure. Click to read it. (More Kunar province stories.)
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