Norwegian Casualties in Afghanistan

[navylt]

23 May 2004 - RPG and SAF attack W of Kabul. 1 x KIA; 1 x WIA(Serious)

[EvanL]

RIP :(

[Steve Railsback]

RIP :(

[Khabbi]

RIP :petting:

[Ichhabe]

Taliban claims that they are behind the attack on the Norwegian patrol. They also claim that they are ready to attack in all major cities if not the international forces pull out of Afghanistan.

So far the name of the Norwegian soldier is witheld due to the wish of his relatives.

British soldiers in Kabul have arrested two men that is suspected of being behind the attack.

[Ichhabe]

Norwegian soldier killed in Afghanistan
A Norwegian soldier in the Telemark batallion was killed in an attack in Afghanistan's capital Kabul on Sunday evening. A group of Norwegian soldiers came under missile fire on one of Kabul's main roads. One was slightly wounded and two others in the same vehicle escaped unharmed.
The vehicle was one of four Norwegian vehicles returning from an assignment when the convoy was attacked just outside of the Norwegian base Camp Evicta.

A missile hit one of the vehicles, injuring two soldiers, one seriously. They were evacuated to the Norwegian field hospital in Camp Warehouse where the badly injured soldier later died of his wounds.

About 230 Norwegians are serving in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) force in Afghanistan.

ISAF is investigating the incident. The group is on heightened alert and all personnel have been brought back to base.

(Aftenposten English Web Desk/NTB)

http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article794757.ece

[Grim]

RIP :( :(

[FDF_Hemppis]

http://img49.photobucket.com/albums/v151/Hemppis/muut/smiley_salute.gif RIP

[-Max2-]

RIP :(

[mack pl]

RIP :(

[shrek]

God bless them

[Scottie]

R.I.P :(

"Si vis pacem, para bellum"
("Let him who desires peace prepare for war.")

:bash:

[Marmot1]

R.I.P. to Telemark soldiers

[OldRecon]

http://img49.photobucket.com/albums/v151/Hemppis/muut/smiley_salute.gif RIP

On the other hand good to see some of the "luck factor" Norwegian forces abroad normaly seem to be blessed with still holding, in that fortunately no more were harmed physicaly or killed, in what could basicaly have ended even worse.
Either that or a vigilant crew spotting attack in time to accelerate car just enough to avoid a "bullseye" :|.
Hope following reporting on the incident will be more decent and accurate than than the Oppland ambush.

[Marsuitor]

RIP
I sure hope it's no one i know. :(
May his friends and family be helped through this difficult time...

[Maverick77]

RIP

[Claymore]

Sad to hear. :(


But what is SAF?

[mack pl]

small arms fire(AK47 for example)

[Adri]

RIP :(

[Guttorm]

:(

Hvil i fred.

[Marsuitor]

http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/distrikt/nrk_hedmark_og_oppland/3803768.html
Some more news, unfortunately not in English yet. Turns out the KIA was a friend of mine. If this isn't typical... man, this sucks so bad. :(
I've had a bad feeling all day, and suddenly i get a phone call. and the strange part is that i knew what it was about the instance i picked the phone up...

[Claymore]

Thanks mack.

[urs]

http://www.vg.no/bilder/bildarkiv/1085416427.82441.jpg

RIP

[mack pl]

Thanks mack.
no problem

btw how many soldiers Norway have in A-stan?

RIP :(

[Marsuitor]

About 230. Mostly peacekeeping in Kabul.

[Lt_Crooks]

is this the first Norwegian casualty?

[Marsuitor]

In A-stan, yes, first KIA. There's also been a couple of WIA too over the last year also.
As OldRecon said, Norwegians have been blessed by some almost supernatural luck through the years, but unfortunately this didn't apply in full here. :(

[mack pl]

In A-stan, yes, first KIA. There's also been a couple of WIA too over the last year also.
As OldRecon said, Norwegians have been blessed by some almost supernatural luck through the years, but unfortunately this didn't apply in full here. :( its not fuzkin picnik.They make great job in A-stan :|
regards Norge

[Herrmannek]

RIP

[Marsuitor]

Its not fuzkin picnik.They make great job in A-stan :|
regards Norge

Thanks for that :)
I understand the job is hard. They've trained for this for a long time and they knew what they were getting themselves into. It just sucks bigtime that when the time comes that one of the soldiers in the 230 strong unit has to lose his life, it just so happens to be a good friend of mine, and then by some coward bastard Taliban pieces of ****.

[mack pl]

Its not fuzkin picnik.They make great job in A-stan :|
regards Norge
It just sucks bigtime that when the time comes that one of the soldiers in the 230 strong unit has to lose his life, it just so happens to be a good friend of mine, and then by some coward bastard Taliban pieces of ****.well, it must be **** feeling, to lossed friend :(

[kinghk]

Looks like the norwegian military home page www.mil.no has removed all images and replaced the regular frontpage with a digest to counter the huge amount of visitors.

Hvil i fred.

[OldRecon]

By now the name of the Norwegian soldier that was killed have been released by the authorities.

Grenadier (private professional volunteer) Tommy Rødningsby, 29 years old from Skreia in Østre Toten (a place in the southern part of norway, somewhat inland quite a bit north of the capital Oslo).
RIP. :(.

By some coincidence hope it's not the cousin of a close friend of mine, who comes from much the same part of Norway as Mr Rødningsby.
My friend mentioned his cousin only once.
Thus never met him, and do not even know his name. Thus hope for the best. If the grenadier in mention should indeed have been the cousin of my friend it would be a pretty bad coincidence :(.

[Yard Ape]

http://img2.imageshack.us/img2/1038/lest_we_forget1.GIF

[Denat]

RIP :(

[OldRecon]

Just called my friend. Fortunately my fear of the dead grenadier being a relative of his proved wrong. :).
Yet this is a sad moment for me, and I'm shure many other Norwegian ex-Norbatts, ex-unprofors... etc. give their regards to the family of grenadier Rødningsby now. Even those of us who never had the honour to know him personaly. :(.

[oldsoak]

RIP :(

[Scottie]

Turns out, my friend who had recently left the Telemark Bataljonen knew that guy very well..

From another forum...Norwegian Only
My Friend says:

Det som er kjip nå er å ikke vite hvem det var som ble drept. Var det en Grenader eller Offiser? Kjenner jeg han..? Uansett, det var i MIN avdeling og det er for jævlig. Senest i januar var jeg der nede som beredskapsbefal og nå sitter jeg å sturer over hvem det var... Mek.Inf kompaniet, TMBN er min beredskapsavdeling og jeg har selv vært ute på slike patruljer. Man vet aldri hva som kan skje i et slik situasjon. Irriterer meg over at det var bare 1,5 km ifra Invicta, og at de faktisk klarte å stikke av. Hadde de kjørt tyngre kjøretøyer som CV9030 hadde Taliban folka hatt noen sjangs, har alltid sagt at å patruljere i MB'ene er helt høl i huet.

Men hva skal man gjøre i et slikt land hvor kulturen er helt forskjellig fra våres. Det er deres kultur og livsstilen har vært mer eller mindre lik de siste 1000 årene, da kan ikke vesten komme å si at slikt SKAL det være fordi vi er vandt med det. Men når de bringer frykt og terror over grensa så er vi nødt til å gjøre noe. Afghanistan er ikke lik f.eks Kosovo. I Kosovo var det snakk om diktatur og da er situasjonen mye klarere. i Afghanistan er det kulturen som har mest av grunnlaget i Taliban og deres form for diktatur.

Agent har et poeng når han sa at religion skaper bare faenskap. De fleste kriger de siste 100 årene har vært basert på religiøse forskjeller. Jeg vil heller si at det er kulturen som skaper krigen, men så er religion en stor del av det. Og klasuen, kristendom er ikke like ille i våre øyne, men langt ifra fredlig. F.eks, Irland vs Nord-Irland, Korsfarerene som etablerte kristendommen over store deler av verden ved bruk av frykt og vold. Gresk Ortodokse, Protestanter og Romersk Katolsk tro er veldig forskjellig og har mye blod på samvittigheten.

Mitt poeng er at ikke alle Islamister er like ille. Det er de FÅ som tar koranen veldig seriøst (fundamentalister) som skaper problemer for andres hverdag og tvinger soldater i vesten til å gjøre det de gjør best. Men vi har også de kristen fundamentalistene som kanskje ikke er like utbredt og anses ikke som en voldelig trussel, men bibelen er faktisk like ille som koranen vis man skal sammenligne de.

Agent=Another member of forum

[kinghk]

Turns out, my friend who had recently left the Telemark Bataljonen knew that guy very well..

From another forum...Norwegian Only


Hvilket forum?

[kinghk]

By now the name of the Norwegian soldier that was killed have been released by the authorities.

Grenadier (private professional volunteer)

I thought enlisted would be the right translation.

For your germans out there, Toten is just a place in Norway, and has nothing to do with death.

[waize]

I feel like I must give my condolences to this and hope that it will not happen again.
I have thought that this was something just happening to americans and that they deserved it because they went into A-stan, and now I feel sorry for it

To you americans: I'M SORRY AND I APOLOGIZE.
:roll:

[OldRecon]

By now the name of the Norwegian soldier that was killed have been released by the authorities.

Grenadier (private professional volunteer)

I thought enlisted would be the right translation.

...

No, think "a regular" is a better term in English for a person who voluntarily make a living out of serving in the armed forces of his or her country.

enlisted I think sort of is the naval version of "conscripted" (f.ex enlisted seaman vs. regular navy able seaman).

[Marsuitor]

In relation to the rank issue, i prefer to think of grenader as the Norwegian equal to the American specialist.
In relation to the forum quote, regarding the part about how only patrolling heavy would eliminate or minimize the risk of losing people to events like these, i'm afraid i can't agree with that. Over the next couple of days there might or might not surface some details that show, yet again, that Norwegians have been blessed with incredible luck, only this time a life had to be lost. I'm afraid i can't go into details now, but i'm saying now that it could have ended with many more KIA, with or without CV90.
If rebels/freedom fighters/insurgents/SOB's whatever want to blow you up, they know how to and will.

[Alpha Leader]

RIP :( :(

[Haiw]

http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/distrikt/nrk_hedmark_og_oppland/3803768.html
Some more news, unfortunately not in English yet. Turns out the KIA was a friend of mine. If this isn't typical... man, this sucks so bad. :(
I've had a bad feeling all day, and suddenly i get a phone call. and the strange part is that i knew what it was about the instance i picked the phone up...
My condolences... :|

[Marsuitor]

Thank you, appreciated. :)

[OldRecon]

Noticed another Norwegian also died in Kabul recently, as a civilian, while on his way hiking and backpacking from Australia home to Norway. :(

[Marsuitor]

I remember seeing that also. Sympathies to his friends and family who lost a loved one, but i can't stop thinking what an act of sheer stupidity going as a tourist to Afghanistan and Kabul at this time was. This guy brought it down on himself for nothing except tempting fate IMO. :(