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ISIS launched an attack on Afghan security posts killing 17 soldiers, an Afghan official said Friday.

Ahmad Ali Hazrat, chief of the provincial council in the province, said the attack Thursday night took place in the Dih Bala district in eastern Nangarhar province.

Hazrat said ISIS fighters attacked army security posts from three directions and after several hours of heavy fighting, 17 army soldiers were dead.

General Doulat Waziri, spokesman for the Ministry of Defence, said soldiers killed 21 ISIS fighters.

Also on Friday, an Afghan provincial official saidTalibanforces stormed several Afghan security posts in easternKunarprovince, killing five police officers.

Provincial Gov. Waheedullah Kalimzai said the daring attacks lasted nearly two hours and were apparently co-ordinated but police, aided by other security officials, managed to repel the attackers and drove the insurgents from the area.

Kalimzai said another police officer is missing after the attack. He said Taliban fighters used heavy machine-guns and explosive devices in the assault. Kalimzai added that the Afghan police killed several Taliban fighters.

Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province borders Pakistan. Insurgency groups have a strong presence in the area.

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ISIS raid in Afghanistan kills 17 soldiers - CBC.ca

David Holahan , Special for USA TODAY 11:33 a.m. EST February 17, 2017

by Gregg Zoroya

(Da Capo Press)

in Non-Fiction

In 2008, seven years after America invaded Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11, it was a largely forgotten war. George W. Bushs administration had diverted its attention and much of the nations military resources to Iraq, where a second war was not going well.

But in remote sections of Afghanistan, aptly named the Graveyard of Empires, American soldiers still were being tasked with holding forbidding chunks of real estate, battling insurgents, and winning the hearts and minds of local residents.

The Chosen Few: A Company of Paratroopers and Its Heroic Struggle to Survive in the Mountains of Afghanistanis about one such godforsaken place and the sacrifices made there by some 150 Army soldiers from Chosen Company. It is a remarkable story, whose telling raises myriad questions without resorting to polemics. It is unlikely that those who read it will ever utter the phrase, Thank you for your service, quite the same way again.

Author Gregg Zoroya.(Photo: Jack Gruber)

The Chosen Few (Da Capo Press, 370pp., *** out of four stars) is a gripping, exhaustively reported account of modern warfare: The GIs versus the Jihadis. Author Gregg Zoroya a veteran USA TODAYwar correspondent, and now a member of its editorial board cuts through the fog of war by drawing on numerous sources, among them hundreds of interviews with participants and their families, official postmortems, and videos of the action taken by soldiers and insurgents alike.

Zoroya delivers the adrenaline of combat right to the readers easy chair. His prose is direct and clear, and never upstages the action. He also brings the warriors to life, chronicling their trials and triumphs before, duringand after three searing firefights. Some are wounded and fight on. Some die horrific deaths. Astounding bravery is commonplace. Be prepared to flinch.

Chosen Company, circa 2008, was a motley crew of mostly very young men, or lost boys, as the author dubs them. Many hailed from broken homes and troubled pasts, and the Army provided not only a challenge and an escape hatch, but also a surrogate family.

Ryan Pitts, who never knew his father, joined the Army at 18. Four years later riddled with shrapnel and unable to walk or fully use one hand Pitts gathered what weapons he could, crawled to a defensive position and fought on, fully expecting to die, either from loss of blood or enemy bullets.

Sgt. Ryan Pitts, left, and Sgt. Israel Garcia in Afghanistan.(Photo: From 'The Chosen Few')

Pitts was the last man alive in Topside, a makeshift observation post high above an unfinished base in the remote village of Wanat. Its residents had fled, leaving their houses as cover for the insurgentsto use. They had neglected to tell the Americans of the impending attack. The local police, though they feigned innocence later, took part in the assault. It is unlikely that the hearts and minds of these people were winnable from the get-go.

The inevitable question is why the Americans were there in the first place, in the remote Waigal Valley. Previous attacks had led them to abandon two nearby posts, and, like them, Wanat was vulnerable, flanked by mountains that provided ideal cover for attackers. The Army abandoned the base three days after the deadly assault.

Zoroya doesnt take sides. He lets the facts and comments of others fall where they may. Pitts was not among those who blamed higher-ups, whether in his company, in Kabul or in Washington. He didnt see himself as a victim.

In a remarkable statement, reflecting a sentiment shared by many of his brothers in Chosen Company, he said, Its crazy to say, but I had some of the best times in my life with those guys in Afghanistan.

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'Chosen Few' is a searing account of war in Afghanistan - USA TODAY

Things were going reasonably well for a group of Special Forces soldiers looking to disrupt Taliban operations in a small Afghanistan village last year, until the team came upon a 20-foot-tall steel gate that no one had anticipated.

Surrounded on two more sides by 10-foot walls, the 59-man group -- 10 special operators from 2nd Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group, two U.S. support elements and a handful of Afghan soldiers -- found themselves in a harrowing firefight on Nov. 2.

"The spider senses were definitely tingling, being up there at that gate," Sgt. 1st Class Sean Morrison said in a Feb. 9 Army release.

For two hours the group held back the attack, dubbed the Battle of Boz Qandahari, killing 27 insurgents and three high-value Taliban commanders, the release said.

The attack took the lives of two Green Berets: Sgt. 1st Class Ryan Gloyer and Maj. Andrew Byers.

Gen. John Nicholson, commander of the Resolute Support mission and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, left, congratulates Sgt. 1st Class Brian Seidl, 10th Special Forces Group, after presenting him with the Silver Star award Feb. 1, 2017 at Fort Carson, Colorado. For his heroism, Byers was posthumously awarded the Silver Star on Feb. 1. Two of his surviving teammates, Sgt. 1st Class Brian Seidl and Staff Sgt. Andrew Russell, also received the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest award for valor.

'Into machine gun fire'

The team was dropped into a flooded field near the Boz Qandahari village in Kunduz province that night, where they slogged a mile in waist-deep mud to get to the village, which one soldier described as castle-like.

"Just steep, 100-foot-high cliffs on all sides of the village with only one entry way," Morrison said.

To get in, they had to climb the cliff face carved with switchback trails to the top.

Drones above let them know that enemy combatants were closing in on the group, but they pushed ahead, clearing two compounds uneventfully while collecting contraband and intelligence.

Because of bad weather in the forecast, they decided to skip to the fourth compound on the list, where they ran into the huge gate and found themselves surrounded by insurgents.

Gloyer, who had been at the gate with Seidl and Staff Sgt. Adam Valderrama, was mortally wounded by the first grenade blast. He managed to run back to the group, but didn't survive.

As enemy fire surrounded them, then-Capt. Byers did not hesitate.

"Byers sprinted past me," Seidl said. "He just ran straight into the smoke and the dust."

Seidl followed Byers into the kill zone to rescue a fallen Afghan soldier.

Maj. Andrew Byers, left, was posthumously awarded the Silver Star on Feb. 1. Two of his surviving teammates, Sgt. 1st Class Brian Seidl, center, and Staff Sgt. Andrew Russell, right, also received the Silver Star for their actions. Photo Credit: Army Meanwhile, Russell, a junior weapons sergeant, risked his own life to save a wounded warrant officer.

"I grabbed [Warrant Officer 1 Meade] by his plate carrier," he said, "dragged him back a few feet and tried to get in front of him, between what was basically a three-way kill zone. ... I thought I was dead."

And thanks to him, Meade made it, and is recovering from his injuries at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

"He ran into machine gun fire to get me," said Meade, "Then, whenever he couldn't drag me any further, he laid down on top of me and protected me with his own body."

"He's engaging [the enemy] in three different directions," Seidl said. "And all the while, he managed to get tourniquets on both of [Meade's] legs, saving his life."

Byers and Seidl worked together to set up a defensive area to care for the wounded, choosing one of the village's compounds. After throwing grenades inside to clear it, Byers tried to kick the gate open, but an object on the other side held it shut, so he reached through to move it.

"And that's when I watched the rounds rip through the gate and into [Byers]," Seidl remembered.

With Byers and Meade, the team and assistant team leaders, wounded, Seidl was left to call in MEDEVACs. A third of the group had been killed or injured, so it was up to him to hold on until a quick reaction force could get there.

It was past dawn by the time the exfiltration team showed up, forcing the operators to move the wounded 300 meters to a covered treeline for concealment, using a village donkey to carry Gloyer's body.

In addition to the three Silver Stars, the team earned three Bronze Stars (two with "V" device), four Army Commendation Medals with "V" device and six Purple Heart Medals.

"Some of the things that I saw of the men that night was some of the most courageous and amazing things I'd ever seen," Seidl said, "or could ever hope to see."

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3 Green Berets receive Silver Star for deadly Afghanistan ambush - ArmyTimes.com

WASHINGTONThe House Armed Services Committees chairman this week voiced support for increasing the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, adding he isnt worried about a slow slide into another major military mission there.

I dont see a big build up of huge numbers of combat troops going back to Afghanistan, said Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas. The Afghan military is making good progress. But these silly games we play with (personnel caps) make that progress harder to accomplish.

The comments came one week after Gen. John Nicholson Jr., commander of U.S. Forces Afghanistan, said he needs several thousand more troops to break the stalemate in the fight against terrorist groups in Afghanistan.

About 8,500 U.S. troops and another 5,000 other foreign allies are still stationed in Afghanistan, even though the official combat mission there ended in 2014. Nicholson said several thousand more troops -- either from American or foreign allied forces -- are needed for training work key the long-term sustainability of the still struggling Afghanistan military.

Earlier in the week, in testimony before Thornberrys committee, the former ambassador for U.S. counterterrorism efforts told lawmakers he is skeptical that sending more American troops into Afghanistan and Iraq can bring lasting peace to those regions.

Afghanistan and Iraq are very, very important, but I caution about creeping troop increases in both countries, Michael Sheehan, chair of the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, told members of the House Armed Services Committee.

Thousands of advisors that are there in advice missions, when it becomes too big, it begins to look and smell like an occupation. And occupations create as many problems as they seek to solve.

But Thornberry said he sees troop caps put in place by former President Barack Obama as dangerous and counterproductive, and removing them as a more realistic long-term solution for security in Afghanistan.

If we could just get rid of the political artificiality and say, this is what were doing, were trying to, this is what we think it will take and be up front about it well be more efficient with our dollars and be more effective, he told reporters.

Nearly 2,400 U.S. troops have been killed in fighting in Afghanistan since 2001.

Leo Shane III covers Congress, Veterans Affairs and the White House for Military Times. He can be reached at lshane@militarytimes.com.

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Thornberry: Sending more troops to Afghanistan won't mean a ... - Military Times

President Ghani and American Vice President Pence exchange reciprocal invites to visit their respective countries

In a meeting with President Ashraf Ghani on the sidelines of Munich Security Conference on Saturday, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said the United States continues to assess "the increase of American troops for training their Afghan counterparts", the Presidential Palace said in a statement.

Pence said Afghanistan has "a special importance for the United States and they will continue their cooperation and support to the Afghan government and the Afghan people", the statement said.

Pence also commended "the courage and efforts of Afghan Security and Defense Forces".

President Ghani meanwhile thanked the United Sates for its support to Afghanistan and praised the U.S. forces for their sacrifices in the country.

Ghani said in their meeting that the war in Afghanistan was not a "an internal war" rather that Afghanistan was on the frontline of global security and the fight against terrorism.

He added that while Afghanistan had access to all required capacities for combating terrorism the Afghan Air Force needed further equipment and empowerment.

Ghani invited the U.S. vice president to visit Afghanistan. Pence also invited the Afghan president to visit the United States, the statement read.

The two sides also discussed a four-year security plan for Afghanistan and the preparations for holding the parliamentary elections in the country.

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US Considers Increasing Its Training Force In Afghanistan - TOLOnews