WORLD VIDEO GAMES NFL Syrian Kurds Code Vein borrows Mahomes hurts claim Turkey from Dark Souls but knee in Chiefs’ violated truce has distinct identity win over Broncos Page 4 Page 15 Back page Bird strike causes millions in damage to Navy ‘doomsday’ plane » Page 3 Volume 78, No. 132A ©SS 2019 CONTINGENCY EDITION SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2019 stripes.com Free to Deployed Areas AFGHANISTAN Dozens dead, wounded in mosque blast BY RAHIM FAIEZ Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan — An explosion rocked a mosque in eastern Afghanistan as dozens of people gathered for Friday play- ers, causing the roof to collapse and killing 62 worshippers, pro- vincial officials said. The attack underscored ‘ the record- Both high number men and of civilians dying in the children country’s 18- are among year war. those Attahullah Khogyani, killed and spokesman for wounded the governor of Nangarhar in the Province, said attack. ’ the militant at- Attahullah tack wounded Khogyani 36 others. He spokesman said it was not immediately Green Berets clear if the mosque was attacked assigned to 3rd by a suicide bomber or by some Special Forces other type of bombing. Group (Airborne) “Both men and children are move to board a among those killed and wounded New warfare strategy UH-60 Black Hawk in the attack,” he said. helicopter for Sediq Sediqqi, spokesman for extraction during Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Army special ops adapt training to compete with Russia, China training near Nellis strongly condemned the attack on Air Force Base, his official Twitter account. “The BY JOHN VANDIVER Afghan government strongly mate, and economies will drive political instability Nev., in August. condemns today’s suicide at- Stars and Stripes and resource competition,” the strategy states. Steven Lewis/U.S. Army tack in a mosque in Nangarhar But the Army’s main focus is Russia and China and Army Green Berets and Rangers will “get brilliant province,” he tweeted. the concerns also go beyond their military modern- “The Taliban and their part- at the basics” to prepare for future battlefields where ization programs. Such adversaries avoid provoking ners heinous crimes continue to adversaries like Russia and China could knock out the a conventional military fight by “weaponizing infor- target civilians in time of wor- secured combat outposts relied upon in more recent mation at scale” to “fracture our alliances and win ship,” he added. conflicts, according to a new U.S. Army Special Op- without fighting.” No one immediately claimed erations Command Strategy. “Great power competition means we are in conflict responsibility for the attack, but “We will shift from a mindset of inhabiting secure right now,” the strategy states. both the Taliban and Islamic forward operating bases to one of surviving and thriv- To deal with threats short of armed conflict, Army State are active in eastern Af- ing in large-scale combat operations,” the strategy special operators want to get more out of combat ghanistan, especially Nangarhar says. training centers by using cyber and information war- province. The plan, which was rolled out by USASOC leaders fare in all aspects of training. However, Zabihullah Muja- earlier this week at the Association of the U.S. Army’s In 2018, the Pentagon put out a new national de- hid, the Taliban’s spokesman annual conference in Washington, also says trends fense strategy that placed greater focus on countering in a statement condemned the like climate change, urbanization and rapid techno- Russia and China. In the year since, the military has attack in Nangarhar and called it a logical advances will test Special Forces soldiers in grappled with how to manage ongoing threats in the serious crime. new ways. Middle East with the new focus. SEE BLAST ON PAGE 2 “Drastic changes to global social patterns, the cli- SEE STRATEGY ON PAGE 2 PAGE 2 •STARS AND STRIPES• Saturday, October 19, 2019 MILITARY Strategy: Some changes in training already underway FROM FRONT PAGE in a shift on two fronts: brilliant The national defense strategy at the basics and revolutionary. was “clear in its call to shake Everything we do will empha- off strategic atrophy and restore size survivability, lethality, and America’s competitive edge,” Lt. agility,” the strategy says. Some changes in training have Gen. Francis M. Beaudette said already taken root. The course to in a statement. qualify for the Green Berets was To that end, Army Special recently revamped and short- Forces must be able to oper- ened so that soldiers can get to ate when technology no longer units faster and receive addi- works, which means getting bet- tional training tailored to their ter at battlefield maneuver and specific mission. land navigation, the strategy “We need to reestablish our states. In a fight against Russia forte, which is our ability to work or China, GPS and communica- with partner forces, develop- tions systems would likely come ing their capabilities to provide under attack. an advantage for them and the At the same time, ARSOF said United States against our adver- it will integrate rapidly changing saries — North Korea, Iran and technology such as “hardened China and Russia,” the Army’s communications” and informa- Maj. Gen. Kurt Sonntag told The tion-gathering platforms, as well Associated Press earlier this ANDREW ADAIRE/U.S. Army as weapons that can “reach out month. and kill the enemy undetected.” [email protected] Green Berets assigned to 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) train members of the Arizona Air Force “Our culture will be grounded Twitter: @john_vandiver National Guard on marksmanship during the Red Flag training event in Flagstaff, Ariz., in August. Blast: UN says more Afghan civilians died in July than in any previous one-month period FROM FRONT PAGE period since the U.N. began killed and 1,199 wounded, a 26% “dead,” blaming a surge in vio- Pakistani officials, including Zahir Adil, spokesman for keeping statistics. increase from the same period in lence by the Taliban that includ- Prime Minister Imran Khan. the public health department in “Civilian casualties at record- 2018. ed the killing of a U.S. soldier. They insisted he was not in Nangarhar province, said 23 of high levels clearly show the need The report said 2,563 civil- U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Pakistan to restart U.S.-Taliban the wounded were transferred to for all parties concerned to pay ians were killed and 5,676 were Khalilzad visited Pakistan and peace talks. Jalalabad, the provincial capital, m u c h m o r e a t t e n t i o n t o p r o t e c t i n g wounded in the first nine months met with the Taliban’s top nego- In western Herat province, and the rest were being treated in the civilian population, includ- of this year. Insurgents were tiator, Mullah Abdul Ghani Bara- six civilians including four chil- the Haskamena district clinic. ing through a review of conduct responsible for 62%. July to dar , who is a co-founder of the dren were killed Thursday when The violence comes a day after during combat operations,” said September were the deadliest hard-line Islamic movement and their vehicle was hit by a road- a United Nations report said Af- Tadamichi Yamamoto, the U.N. months so far this year. was head of a Taliban delegation side bomb, said Jelani Farhad, ghan civilians are dying in re- secretary-general’s special rep- Efforts to restart talks to end to the Pakistani capital. spokesman for the provincial cord numbers in the country’s resentative for Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s 18-year war picked U.S. officials said Khalilzad governor. increasingly brutal war, noting The report said pro-govern- up earlier this month, just weeks was in the Pakistani capital only He added that five other civil- that more civilians died in July ment forces caused 2,348 civil- after President Donald Trump to follow up on talks he held in ians were wounded in the attack than in any previous one-month ian casualties, including 1,149 last month declared the talks September in New York with in the Zawal district. T O D A Y IN STRIPES American Roundup ............ 14 Books ......................... 16-17 Business .......................... 13 Comics/Crossword ............ 22 Health & Fitness ...............18 Opinion ............................ 20 Sports .........................24-32 Video Games .....................15 Weather ........................... 13 Saturday, October 19, 2019 •STARS AND STRIPES• PAGE 3 MILITARY Navy: Bird strikes ‘doomsday’ plane in costly incident BY ALLYSON CHIU The incident was classified by the The Washington Post Naval Safety Center as a “class A” mishap, which also applies to WASHINGTON — The Navy’s cases that result in aircraft de- “doomsday” plane wasn’t sup- struction, death or permanent posed to be on the ground in disability. Maryland for long. Instead, the At the time of the costly bird en- E-6B Mercury — a flying com- counter, a team of people were on munications and command post board conducting a systems test, designed to play a critical role but no one was injured, Boulay JACOB SKOVO/U.S. Air Force during a nuclear war — should said. It is unclear what species of have briefly touched down before feathered creature collided with A U.S. Navy E-6B Mercury aircraft like the one shown above was attempting to perform a touchdown taking off again. the $141.7 million plane, and the maneuver at Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland when a wayward bird struck one of its four But as the hulking aircraft was incident remains under investiga- engines on Oct. 2, causing at least $2 million in damage. attempting to perform the ma- tion.