New York City detective among six USA troops killed in Afghanistan

A member of the U.S. Air Forces Reserves, Lemm was one of six American soldiers killed Monday in Bagari Village, Afghanistan, as the result of injuries received in an Improvised Explosive Device attack.

Another of those killed Monday was Technical Sergeant Joseph Lemm, who was on leave from the New York City Police Department while deployed for his second time in Afghanistan.

“The United States condemns this cowardly attack on members of the USA and Afghan forces, and we remain committed to supporting the Afghan people and their government”, the statement said.

Three months later the then defence secretary, John Reid, said he would be “perfectly happy” if United Kingdom troops left Helmand three years later “without firing a shot”. Two others were wounded along with an Afghan. She served during a period when the military’s official policy banned openly gay men and women.

He told BBC Radio 4’s World At One: “What we ought to be doing in all these countries is having a flexible force which can swoop in and swoop out again, a mixture of special forces supported by air power in support of friendly ground forces where they exist”.

Pentagon data showed there have been 10 so-called “hostile” deaths of US servicemembers in Afghanistan this year.

US troops in Afghanistan now number just under 9,800, down from its peak of 100,000 in 2010 when deaths peaked at 711.

This week, Carter expressed his condolences to the Americans’ families.

The small contingent of British forces in an advisory role arrived at Camp Shorabak, the largest British military base in Afghanistan before it was handed over to the Afghan forces previous year, Britain’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but militants still continue deadly attacks across the country.

But attempts to get the extra troops to Sangin were slowed by roadside bombs, he said.

NEW YORK (AP) – A New York City detective who was killed in a suicide attack in Afghanistan was mourned Tuesday as a selfless public servant and a devoted family man.

Fighting in Afghanistan has intensified since the announcement in late July that the founder and leader of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammad Omar, had been dead for more than two years.

Fleeing local residents reported bloody gunfights as the Taliban advanced on the district centre, highlighting a worsening security situation across Afghanistan a year after North Atlantic Treaty Organisation formally ended its combat operations.

Its central hub is in Bagram/Kabul with “spokes” in Mazar-e Sharif, Herat, Kandahar and Laghman, NATO says.