NYPD detective among 6 Americans killed in Afghanistan

The strategically important town of Sangin was believed to be nearly completely under Taliban control, British Sky News reported on Tuesday.

“We are air-dropping food supplies, military equipment and ammunition to support our forces in Sangin”, defense ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanesh told AFP. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

“The military is in position and the operation is ongoing”, Stanekzai told a news conference in Kabul, adding that reinforcements had arrived in the province to relieve troops in Sangin.

But the Afghan forces, he said, “will continue to get better”.

Helmand is a traditional stronghold of the Taliban and one of the biggest centers of opium production, which helps fund the insurgency.

Razia Baluch, a member of the Helmand provincial council warned that Helmand risked falling to the Taliban if the Afghan government failed to act. On their way into the governor’s compound, they passed the charred remains of the motorcycle used in the attack, which Afghan police had stored on the grounds. With NATO contributions, there are about 13,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan.

Officials see no traditional winter slowdown in the insurgents’ quest to overthrow the Kabul government, especially in the warmer southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar.

More than 450 British military personnel or MoD civilians have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001.

The latest unrest in Helmand comes as President Ashraf Ghani has made a diplomatic outreach to Pakistan – the Taliban’s historic backers – aimed at restarting peace talks with the insurgents. “And do something”, Mir said. An Afghan was also reportedly wounded. “It is a confidence thing”.

“We all watched in horror the Taliban attacks of recent weeks”, she said, citing Monday’s attack near Bagram Air Field that killed Staff Sgt. Joseph Lemm, an Air National Guardsman with the 105th Airlift Wing out of upstate Newburgh. Two other US troops and an Afghan were wounded.

The White House expressed condolences to the families of the dead.

Major Vorderbruggen had served as a special agent with the Office of Special Investigations at a number of duty stations including McCord’s Air Force Base in Washington and Joint Base Andrews in Maryland before joining her unit at Eglin Air Force Base.

Shirley Lemm said she plans to fly to Dover Air Force Base in DE so she can be there when her son’s body arrives Wednesday.

■ Staff Sergeant Joseph Lemm, a New York City police detective and member of the Air National Guard who had also served in Iraq.

Chester McBride, a 2003 graduate of Statesboro High School in Georgia, was also identified Tuesday as one of the service members killed in the blast, CNN affiliate WSAV reports.

Vorderbruggen and her wife were active in the organization Military Partners and Families Coalition which pointed out in a statement that Tuesday (22 December) marks five years since the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was signed.

Combat operations by the U.K in Afghanistan officially ended previous year but Britain decided not to withdraw its soldiers in order to bolster the country’s security forces fighting the Taliban.