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Was kidnapped British aid worker in Afghanistan killed by friendly fire?

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  • Was kidnapped British aid worker in Afghanistan killed by friendly fire?

    I honestly have no idea why anyone would bother working as an aid worker in Afghanistan since so many of the people there are dirt bags and you can find other places just as in need of help but who won't try to kill the people who are trying to help them. That said, the Taliban kidnapped a British aid worker who was trying to feed the hungry and provide medical care to those who needed it and they said they'd kill her unless their pie in the sky demands were met. To try to rescue her the British and Americans sent commandos when they found out where the Taliban were keeping her hostage but the rescue attempt ran into a huge fire fight and got bogged down. In the end the hostage was found dead in a small one room dirt compound where US and UK commandos had been firing on entrenched Taliban militants and it seems like the explosion from a grenade an American commando had used to try to destroy Taliban fighting position in the "house" might be responsible.

    NATO Probing U.S. Role In U.K. Aid Worker's Death

    by The Associated Press


    NATO will investigate whether a grenade thrown by American military forces killed a British aid worker during a botched rescue in Afghanistan last week, an alliance spokesman said Monday.
    Linda Norgrove, 36, was killed Friday in the raid by U.S. forces in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province, after she and three colleagues were kidnapped two weeks earlier. NATO initially said Norgrove died when captors detonated a bomb as NATO forces attempted to free her.
    However, British Prime Minister David Cameron said Monday that Norgrove was possibly killed by a grenade lobbed by a member of the U.S. special forces rescue team.
    Cameron said he had informed Norgrove's family of the "deeply distressing development," and defended the decision to attempt the risky rescue mission.
    "We were clear that Linda's life was in grave danger and the operation offered the best chance of saving her life," Cameron told reporters in London.
    Lt. Col. John Dorrian, a spokesman at NATO headquarters in the Afghan capital Kabul, said Monday the rescue mission leader saw video footage of the raid, talked with members of the rescue team, and decided "it was not conclusive what the cause of her death was."
    The rescue mission leader spoke with U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus, who requested the investigation, Dorrian said. The probe will be led by U.S. Central Command.
    Norgrove, who worked for U.S.-funded Development Alternatives Inc., was abducted in an ambush on Sept. 26 along with three Afghan colleagues who were later released. Six kidnappers also died in the rescue attempt.
    NATO was also investigating Monday the deaths of two civilians in southern Afghanistan a day earlier. Initial reports indicated they were killed in a NATO airstrike called in after a patrol was attacked by insurgents.
    In other violence, a roadside bomb killed a NATO service member in the south, the alliance said, without giving a nationality or exact location.
    Monday's death brought to 27 the number of NATO forces killed this month. At least 2,015 NATO service members have died since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001, according to an Associated Press count.
    In the east Monday, Taliban fighters ambushed a supply convoy guarded by Afghan military contractors as it traveled through Ghazni province on its way to Kandahar in the south, said provincial chief of police Zarawar Zahid. An hourlong gunbattle killed eight insurgents and wounded two Afghan security contractors in Qarabagh district.
    Six militants died in operations by Afghan forces Sunday in southern Helmand province's Marjah and Greshk districts, the Defense Ministry said in a statement Monday.
    A joint force was attacked with small-arms fire in southern Kandahar on Sunday, NATO said. Troops called in an airstrike and followed up by firing mortar rounds in Zhari district.
    "Two civilians may have been accidentally killed," said NATO, adding a child was also wounded. One insurgent died, it said.
    An Afghan civilian was also killed by a roadside bomb planted by insurgents in Khost province Monday, NATO said.
    The nine-year war has inflicted a mounting toll on Afghan civilians. A U.N. report said more than 1,200 Afghans died and nearly 2,000 were wounded between January and June this year.
    President Hamid Karzai confirmed his government has been in informal talks with the Taliban on securing peace in war-weary Afghanistan "for quite some time" — the latest in a series of high-level acknowledgments of contacts with the insurgent group.
    Unofficial discussions have been held with Taliban representatives over an extended period, Karzai told CNN's "Larry King Live" in an interview to be broadcast Monday.
    The Afghan government says it hopes to make talks more structured with a "peace council" that will aim for formal talks with insurgent groups. On Sunday, former President Burhanuddin Rabbani was named chief of the council. Rabbani was one of a group of mujahedeen leaders who fought the Soviets in the 1980s. He was Afghanistan's president between 1992 and 1996, when he was ousted by the Taliban.
    Omar said the panel should become the conduit for formal talks.
    "We hope that the signals that have been sent from the different representatives of the Taliban, and the kind of contact, direct and indirect, from the past will materialize into substantive talks led by the High Council of Peace," Omar said.
    Publicly, the Taliban have said they won't negotiate until foreign troops leave the country, yet many Taliban leaders have reached out directly or indirectly to the highest levels of the Afghan government, he said.

    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130487670
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  • #2
    The British government has said they still believe the hostage was murdered by her Taliban captors when the the rescue attempt was discovered but they conceded it is possible it could have been friendly fire and thus an investigation is needed.
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    • #3
      The reports I heard said that no British forces were involved in the rescue attempt (at least on the ground). Am I misinformed?
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      • #4
        I assumed it was a joint effort to rescue a British national.
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        • #5
          It wasn't a joint effort but the decision was made not to use British special forces because the Americans were thought to be in a better position to attempt a rescue.

          I guess these sorts of rescue missions are a bit of a crapshoot. There aren't many ways these things can go right.
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          • #6
            Why the suprise? It's standard practice in the USAF- greet the British with high explosives. Guess the ground forces are catching on.
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            • #7
              Oh, bull****.
              Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.
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              He also hates Texans and Australians, he does diversify." ~ Braindead

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              • #8
                Rescue operations are among the riskiest for a hostage so it is possible.
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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Dauphin View Post
                  The reports I heard said that no British forces were involved in the rescue attempt (at least on the ground). Am I misinformed?
                  Wasn't British Foreign Office officials mentioned at one point? I read that as MI6 or similar.

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                  • #10
                    Would not be the first time trigger happy American soldiers killed British or Canadian people...
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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by lightblue View Post
                      Wasn't British Foreign Office officials mentioned at one point? I read that as MI6 or similar.
                      If you can find a story that says that, post it, but I'm not aware of that.
                      One day Canada will rule the world, and then we'll all be sorry.

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                      • #12
                        Yep, use of a fragmentation grenade to rescue a hostage in an enclosed space...

                        You couldn't make this **** up unless, oh wait - friendly fire is a quintessentially American skill repeated at all too trigger happy intervals down the decades...

                        Linda Norgrove: US navy Seal faces disciplinary action over grenade death
                        Is it me, or is MOBIUS a horrible person?

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