Nine Fort Lewis soldiers killed in Afghanistan's bloodiest month

With the Pentagon's announcement Tuesday of the deaths of three more Fort Lewis soldiers in Afghanistan participating in a heightened offensive against the Taliban, U.S. military deaths grew to 47 in August, the bloodiest month ever in that war.

The Fort Lewis deaths drove to nine in two weeks the number of Fort Lewis soldiers killed in the newly arrived 5th Stryker Brigade which quickly entered the fighting aftrer arriving in July.

September has seen the escalation continue. The Associated Press reported Wednesday that in a major blow, a Taliban suicide bomber killed the country's deputy intelligence chief, Abdullah Laghmani, and 22 other people in Kabul, until now considered a relatively safe city.

All nine Fort Lewis deaths have come from the brigade's 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment. The 5th Stryker Brigade is deployed throughout Kandahar and Zabul provinces, while U.S. Marines are in Helmand province.

Killed Monday in Shuyene Sufia, Afghanistan when their unit was attacked by an improvised bomb were Spc. Jonathan D. Welch, 19, of Yorba Linda, Calif and Pfc. Jordan M. Brochu, 20, of Cumberland, Me.

Spc. Tyler R. Walshe, 21, of Shasta, Calif. also died Monday in southern Afghanistan of wounds from an improvised bomb.

With Afghanistani elections as a backdrop last week, U.S. led coalition forces have increased their offensives in the south, the home of the Taliban and a hotbed of fighting.

While the number of U.S. and coaltion casualties have increased, the Taliban has been bloodied as well.

Across the border in Pakistan's Swat Valley Monday, Fox News reported 30 al-Qaeda or Taliban linked insurgents killed in clashes with Pakistani forces after a Taliban suicide bomber killed 17 police cadets. Wednesday, the Daily Times in Pakistan reported 15 Taliban killed and 105 captured in a clash with security forces near Mingora. Meanwhile, at a border crossing between Afghanstan and Pakistan, explosions tore through a line of 16 NATO fuel trucks idled and backed up by a two-dayborder closure dispute over fruit inspections.

The other bomb, near the border crossing, ripped through a line of NATO fuel trucks backed up by a two-day closure resulting from a dispute over fruit inspections. At least one driver was killed and 16 trucks destroyed on the Pakistani side of the Chaman crossing, police official Gul Mohammad said.

Meanwhile, Scott Fontaine of The News Tribune in Tacoma has some personal information about onre of the Fort Lewis soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice on Monday.

Brochu hinted in his MySpace profile at a rough upbringing, listing his heroes when asked as himself.

"My life has been hell and no one thought or cared if I would make it," he wrote, "and I'm still (here) and for once my head is held high."

Brochu was thinking of college but didn't feel ready so decided to serve in the Army. His former guidance counselor, Nancy McLean, told Fontaine "He saw it as a way to do good. It was a way to prepare for the world."

Hal Bernton of the Seattle Times, writing under the auspices of the McClatchy Corp.'s news group, arrived in Afghanistan on the weekend and writes in his blog as he gets oriented to the country.

All three of Fort Lewis's Stryker Brigades, the 3rd, 4th and 5th, are part of the 2nd Infantry Division.

The 5th became the first Stryker brigade deployed to Afghanistan when it arrived in July.

The three soldiers were killed on the final day of the deadliest month ever for American troops in Afghanistan, with 77 coalition military members killed largely in an increased offensive againt the Taliban.

At least 325 men and women in uniform from Washington's hometowns and military bases have been killed in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

More than 300 foreign troops with the U.S. led coalition have lost their lives in Afghanistan this year, more than any other year of war in Afghanistan, 77 of them in August.

The war in Afghanistan began nearly eight years ago after the al-Qaed, Taliban-complicit terror attacks on U.S. soil of 9/11, but languished and stalled after the Bush Administration diverted forces to start a controversial war in Iraq.