U.S. Soldiers Eliminate Three Taliban Fighters During Ambush

This patrol was a relief in place and I was on point leading the new guys in for the RIP. We hadn’t taken much contact in this area, and it was generally considered a “safe“ zone in Logar Province. We patrolled the area frequently, and the locals would regularly thank us for pushing the Taliban away from their village so they could live their daily lives without constant threat. The Taliban that we came across during this patrol were actually setting up to shoot down our new surveillance balloon that was launched in the area. The balloon caught the entire fight on camera from above, which confirmed that we killed 3 Taliban fighters during this engagement. I saw the first guy shoulder his RPG, take a knee, and point it directly at me from about 15 meters away. I’m not sure if it was luck, but I shot first and hit him twice. The rest of the team engaged immediately after. At the end of the day there were no friendly casualties, and we had eliminated 3 Taliban fighte