XPost: ucb.politics.progressive, chi.general, alt.hollywood   
   XPost: ca.politics   
   From: failing.failing@barackobama.com   
      
   WASHINGTON — Navy SEALs led an unsuccessful raid last month to   
   free an American university professor and his Australian   
   colleague who are being held by the Taliban, engaging in a   
   fierce gun battle with dozens of insurgents at a remote compound   
   in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, American officials said   
   Thursday.   
      
   The officials said the rescue mission began in the days after   
   the professors, Kevin King, the American, and Timothy Weeks, the   
   Australian, were taken at gunpoint on Aug. 7 from their vehicle   
   in Kabul near the campus of the American University of   
   Afghanistan, where they teach. The officials said the group of   
   SEAL members, backed by Army Rangers, are believed to have   
   missed the men by hours.   
      
   The Pentagon confirmed in a statement that a raid had occurred   
   to rescue two civilians but said that “the hostages were not at   
   the location we suspected.” No Americans were killed, but “a   
   number” of insurgents were, it said.   
      
   On Thursday, Taliban fighters were on the verge of overrunning   
   Tirin Kot, the capital of Oruzgan Province in the south, Afghan   
   officials and local elders said.   
      
   Dost Mohammad Nayab, a spokesman for the governor of Oruzgan,   
   said that all security posts around the city had been overrun by   
   the Taliban and that the insurgents had started firing on the   
   Police Headquarters and the governor’s compound.   
      
   “The security forces are engaged with the Taliban inside the   
   city, and fighting is ongoing,” Mr. Nayab said.   
      
   By late afternoon, however, Mr. Nayab said the situation had   
   improved after NATO airstrikes began targeting Taliban   
   positions. In addition, Gen. Abdul Raziq, the powerful police   
   chief of neighboring Kandahar Province, had arrived with other   
   reinforcements, and the central government had tasked him with   
   leading the cleanup operation, a spokesman for General Raziq   
   said.   
      
   The SEAL raid, which was first reported by Fox News, was   
   authorized by President Obama, the Pentagon said. “In order to   
   protect the safety of hostages and operational security,” its   
   statement did not specify whom exactly the SEAL members were   
   seeking to rescue or provide any more details about the raid.   
      
   But days after the professors were abducted in August, the   
   university put out a statement naming the two men and saying   
   they were teaching English to prepare Afghan students to study   
   abroad.   
      
   The Obama administration has not shied away from launching risky   
   rescue raids, but the record has been mixed. The best known is   
   perhaps the raid by SEALs in 2009 to free a cargo ship captain,   
   Richard Phillips, from Somali pirates, an episode that was made   
   into a movie starring Tom Hanks.   
      
   In 2012, SEALs freed an American aid worker and her Danish   
   colleague from Somali pirates.   
      
   But a military raid in July 2014 to free several American and   
   Western hostages held by the Islamic State in Syria failed   
   because the captives had already been moved. That same year,   
   militants from Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen killed an American   
   man and a South African after Special Operations forces tried to   
   free them.   
      
   The raid in August targeted a Taliban faction known as the   
   Haqqani network. The Haqqanis are among the Taliban’s most   
   capable and violent factions. They have held a number of high-   
   profile Western captives over the years, including Sgt. Bowe   
   Bergdahl, who was freed in 2014 in a prisoner swap with the   
   United States.   
      
   http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/09/world/asia/navy-seals-hostage-   
   rescue-afghanistan.html?_r=0   
        
      
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