Inside A Battle For An Afghan City
Inside A Battle For An Afghan City by Melissa Block – NPR Interview w/ William Hennigan
Melissa Block speaks with William Hennigan, national security correspondent for Time magazine, who embedded with U.S. forces during a battle over the Afghan city of Ghazni.
We’re getting a rare inside view of a massive Taliban attack in Afghanistan earlier this month. In that assault, the Taliban nearly succeeded in seizing control of a key provincial capital – city of Ghazni, about 90 miles from the Afghan capital, Kabul. In a matter of days, the Taliban offensive was halted, but the death toll and destruction were immense. Hundreds of Afghan civilians, police officers and soldiers were killed. U.S. Special Forces and Army played a key role in crushing the attack. Nine of them were hurt – among them, two who sustained what will be lifelong injuries. Time magazine correspondent William Hennigan was reporting in Afghanistan at the time and was allowed to travel with the Green Berets to Ghazni. They had gotten a call that several Afghan helicopters were down. And they headed out to secure the area…