Eight U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan during a 24-hour period running from July 13-14. A NATO statement cited by AP and the New York Times said that the first attack came on the night of July 13, as a suicide bomber drove his car into the outer perimeter of the Afghan Civil Order Police headquarters in Kandahar, and was followed minutes later by attackers armed with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns.
Three U.S. troops, an Afghan policeman, and five civilians were killed in the attack, but NATO reported that the insurgents did not succeed in entering the compound.
An ISAF spokeswoman contacted by the Middle East-based Al Jazeera news network would not say where the explosion occurred, stating: "All we’re saying now is that it happened in southern Afghanistan.”
Taliban spokesmen later admitted responsibility for the attack.
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Another five U.S. troops died on July 14. Four were killed by a roadside bomb in the southern part of Afghanistan, while another died the same day of wounds received from a "small arms" attack in southern Afghanistan.
A BBC report noted that so far in July, 45 International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops have died in Afghanistan, 33 of them from the United States. More than 100 international troops were killed in June, which was the bloodiest month of the nine-year-old war.
"We are in the toughest part of this fight," ISAF spokesman Brig. Gen. Josef Blotz (a German) told reporters.
There have been 1,185 U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001, and 4,412 deaths in Iraq since 2003.
The ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan were nominally authorized, respectively, by S.J. Res. 23 on September 14, 2001 and by H.J. Res. 114, on October 16, 2002.
Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress the power to “declare” war. Authorization to “resolve” to go to war is not found in the Constitution.
Photo: A Marine carry team carries the transfer case containing the remains of Marine Lance Corporal Tyler A. Roads of Burney, Calif. upon his arrival at Dover Air Force Base, Del. on July 11, 201.: AP Images
