An NYPD detective nicknamed “Superman” by his fellow cops was one of six U.S. troops killed Monday in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan, The New York Post reported Tuesday. Detective Joseph Lemm, 45, of the Bronx Warrant Squad was killed when a bomb-laden Taliban assassin on a motorcycle targeted a location near the U.S.-run Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan on Monday, where he was serving in the Air National Guard.
“Earlier today, we lost one of our Finest in a suicide bombing in Bagram, Afghanistan,” Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said Monday night. “Detective Joseph Lemm epitomized the selflessness we can only strive for: putting his country and city first.”
Mohammad Asim Asim, governor of Parwan province, said an attacker also injured three other NATO soldiers when a motorcycle rammed a group of eight troops as they patrolled a village near Bagram Airfield, 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of Kabul.
Lemm, a 15-year NYPD veteran, native of Nebraska and a third-grade detective, lived in West Harrison in Westchester, County. He leaves behind a wife, Christine, and two children: a 17-year-old daughter, Brook, and 4-year-old son, Ryan. He was deployed three times and promoted under Bratton recently in January 2014.
Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, in a statement, called the attack “a painful reminder of the dangers our troops face every day in Afghanistan.”
US Army Brig. Gen. William Shoffner, a Pentagon spokesman in Afghanistan, said, “Our heartfelt sympathies go out to the families and friends of those affected in this tragic incident, especially during this holiday season.”
However, Secretary Carter’s comment didn’t address what is clearly a deteriorating security situation in yet another country President Obama prematurely withdrew troops from against the advice of the top brass at the Pentagon. Now, as PPD previously reported, multiple provinces that were once stable zones are now in danger of complete collapse in the face of Islamic State and Taliban forces.
While President Obama has kept roughly 9,800 troops in the country, the Pentagon released a report last week stating the security situation in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate in the face of a “resilient Taliban-led insurgency remains an enduring threat to U.S., coalition, and Afghan forces, as well as to the Afghan people.”
As PPD reported in May, the number of American soldiers killed in Afghanistan under President Barack Obama has now far surpassed the number killed under President George W. Bush, with ISIS essentially swallowing up Taliban forces in Kunar, Khorasan and Helmond provinces. Defense Ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said among the insurgent forces fighting in Helmand, which is an opium haven for Islamists, “three out of 10 are foreign fighters.”
The suicide bombing was the first major attack on a NATO military convoy since August 22, when three American contractors with the RS base were killed in a similiar suicide bombing on their convoy in Kabul. On August 7 and 8, three insurgent attacks in Kabul took place within 24 hours and left 35 people dead. One of the attacks–on a U.S. special operations forces base outside Kabul–left one U.S soldier and eight Afghan civilian contractors dead.
