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U.S. Special Forces Raid Compound in Search of Attackers Who Killed American Soldier
Tuesday, May 21, 2002
(3:49 AM ET)
By Todd Pitmann
Associated Press Writer

Coalition forces have been scouring eastern Afghanistan in search of al-Qaida or Taliban holdouts but have repeatedly returned empty-handed.

BAGRAM, Afghanistan -- AP
As many as 100 U.S. Special Forces troops raided a compound in eastern Afghanistan in an unsuccessful search for attackers who killed an American soldier in an ambush, a U.S. military spokesman said Tuesday.

No shots were fired in the raid near the village of Shkin, but "intelligence items" were seized, Maj. Bryan Hilferty said at the main allied air base at Bagram.

Sgt. Gene Arden Vance Jr., 38, of Morgantown, W.Va., was killed Sunday when a coalition patrol was ambushed in Shkin by 50 unidentified attackers, Hilferty said. His body was flown Monday to a U.S. military base in Germany.

An Afghan soldier fighting alongside Vance was shot in the leg during a firefight sparked by the ambush and is "doing fine." One of the attackers was killed, but the rest fled the scene.
(More: New Jersey Online News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

Dan