UPDATE: The newest version of the story from the Associated Press confirms the two were embedded with 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division:

Bad news from the Associated Press:

KABUL – A bombing has wounded two Associated Press journalists embedded with the U.S. military in southern Afghanistan.

Photographer Emilio Morenatti and AP Television News videographer Andi Jatmiko were traveling with a unit of the 5th Stryker Brigade of Fort Lewis, Wash., when their vehicle ran over a bomb planted in the open desert terrain, the military said.

Both men were immediately taken to a military hospital in Kandahar. Jatmiko suffered leg injuries and two broken ribs. Morenatti, badly wounded in the leg, underwent an operation that resulted in the loss of his foot.

The attack took place in open country 15 miles north of the town of Spin Boldak near the Pakistani border, and 120 miles southeast of Dahaneh, a Taliban-held town where helicopter-borne U.S. Marines launched an operation before dawn Wednesday to uproot the militants.

Sorry I haven't posted much lately. Been busy with some longer-term stuff I'm working on.

But I do want to point you to a few stories. The Canwest News Service has a reporter in Kandahar province, where 5th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division is located. Here are a couple of stories to get you up to date with what's going on:

Canada, U.S. divvy up turf in Afghan war

Canada handoff of Afghan battle zones marks 'new era.'

UPDATE: The AP has a reporter with the troops too. Heidi Vogt writes about their cultural education crash-course.

The mini-surge of troops into Afghanistan -- including more Marines and Fort Lewis' 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division -- comes at a crucial time during the war effort, most agree.

But the Pakistani government is not happy about the buildup, the New York Times reports:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan is objecting to expanded American combat operations in neighboring Afghanistan, creating new fissures in the alliance with Washington at a critical juncture when thousands of new American forces are arriving in the region.

Pakistani officials have told the Obama administration that the Marines fighting the Taliban in southern Afghanistan will force militants across the border into Pakistan, with the potential to further inflame the troubled province of Baluchistan, according to Pakistani intelligence officials.

Pakistan does not have enough troops to deploy to Baluchistan to take on the Taliban without denuding its border with its archenemy, India, the officials said. Dialogue with the Taliban, not more fighting, is in Pakistan’s national interest, they said.

The cooperation of the Pakistani government is crucial if the United States wants to succeed in Afghanistan. The extra troops on the ground, it seems, is also critically important. Should be interesting to how it all shakes out.

I Corps/Multi-National Corps-Iraq
Colonel Overcomes Heart Attack (DVIDS)

5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division
Snipers Take Aim (DVIDS)

If you haven't checked it out yet, look at Peter Haley's slideshow of 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment training with the Land Warrior system. We spent a day with the soldiers from 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division last week, and I turned out this story.

For this following the deployment of 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, this could be interesting: Small Wars Journal copies Gen. Stanley McChrystal's initial guidance to the troops upon taking the top military job in Afghanistan.

It begins:

The situation in Afghanistan is serious. The outcome is important--and not yet decided. Our actions this year will be critical. We must, and will, succeed.

Success will be defined by the Afghan people's freedom to choose their future--freedom from coercion, extremists, malign foreign influence, or abusive government actions.

The outcome will be determined by our ability to understand and act with precision, the values we display, our unity of purpose, and our resolve.

To lead the daily roundup of newslinks about local troops, I submit a source that hasn't been seen in these parts too often. The Pakistan Observer -- which bills itself as the "eyes and ears of Pakistan" and "widely read and trusted daily" reports about the American troop buildup in Afghanistan.

Here's part of what it has to say about 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, which is leaving for South Asia:

The US Stryker Brigade presently under deployment in Kandahar will operate alongside the Canadian Task Force that is struggling to stem the Taliban resilience to evict the occupation forces in the province for the past four years, losing 119 dead and several hundred wounded in the process. A key objective of this troop reinforcement is to impose a greater authority over the southern provinces before the Afghan presidential election on August 20. Taliban leaders have boycotted the ballot, declaring any vote under foreign occupation to be illegitimate.

=> Read more!

Spc. Ryan Young found his wife amid the crowds and pulled her in for a long hug. Around the couple, people cried and smiled. Others took photos or dashed to their cars, trying to savor every last minute before heading to war.

Young, 28, admits he has mixed emotions about leaving. He will miss his wife, but he said a soldier’s duty is to fight when the nation calls.

"I had fun on my first deployment to Iraq," the infantryman said. "But this one’s gonna be tough at times."

Young is one of about 3,900 soldiers from 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division who begin leaving this month for a yearlong deployment to Afghanistan, a cornerstone of a larger push by the U.S. military to bolster a war effort that has struggled to keep the peace. The brigade marked their tour, the first such assignment for a Stryker brigade and the largest troop commitment from Fort Lewis to the South Asian country, during a ceremony at Watkins Field on Friday.

=> Read more!

Hakan Persson held an anti-tank missile launcher and smiled like a new father.

"You can fire this one inside a building with no problem," said the product manager for Saab Bofors Dynamics, a Swedish weapons manufacturer. "It's called at AT4 CS because CS stands for 'confined space.'"

Several soldiers gazed at the display at tubes and rockets and nodded. At a nearby booth in Fort Lewis’ American Lake Community Center, police officers admired the latest sniper rifles Remington had to offer. And a few soldiers from 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division agreed to be on the receiving end of a Taser.

It was all part of the SpecOps West Warfighter Expo, a three-day event featuring more than 70 vendors selling a range of equipment targeted at military and law enforcement. On display were rifles, knives, heavy weapons, communication gear, customizable notepads and sunglasses. This is the event’s third year in Pierce County; the previous two shows were at the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center. As many as 2,000 people are expected to attend this week.

=> Read more!

Usually any press release that begins, "In honor of the troops from Fort Lewis currently preparing for deployment overseas, The World Bikini Football League…" will catch a reporter’s attention.

But, alas, The News Tribune could not make it to Friday’s event at the Sprinker Recreation Center in Spanaway, where more than 30 scantily-clad women scrimmaged some Fort Lewis troops from 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. The players also helped put together care packages for troops being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan, and J&D's Foods passed out their trademark bacon salt (and supplied a guy in a rockin' bacon outfit).

The folks from the league were kind enough to send along some photos from the event. Click below to check out a few of them.

=> Read more!

A $1.1 million simulator to train Fort Lewis soldiers on the Mobile Gun System is up and running at the Battle Command Training Center.

My Olympian colleague, Christian Hill, was there yesterday and filed this report. Check it out.

More than 300 Strykers belonging to 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division begin arriving in Afghanistan this week.

Almost 9,500 tons of vehicles and support equipment will arrive in the country over the next two months, according to an Air Force press release. Most will arrive on C-17 Globemaster III cargo jets.

Other equipment will be flown by commercial An-124 Ruslan jets. The airlift effort is expected to last about two months.

Two Strykers can fit inside each C-17. The vehicles were loaded onto a ship from the Port of Tacoma last month and shipped to a staging area at a Pacific Ocean island. The airlift will take them to southern Afghanistan, where 5th Brigade will deploy later this summer.

It’s the first time Strykers have been deployed on this scale in Afghanistan, though members of 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment have used the eight-wheeled vehicle in the country. The Army boasts seven Stryker brigades – including three at Fort Lewis – but all previous combat experience has been in Iraq.