Airborne in a Black Hawk medevac helicopter, U.S. Army flight medic Staff Sgt. Robert B. Cowdrey, of La Junta, Colo., right, with Charlie Company, All American Dustoff, talks with a Marine wounded in a rocket-propelled grenade attack, as Crew Chief Spc. Timothy Johns, of Mitchell, S.D., assists at left, over Marjah, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Saturday Feb. 13, 2010. U.S. Marines and Afghan soldiers stormed the Taliban stronghold of Marjah on Saturday, as a major offensive began to break the extremists' grip over a wide area of their southern heartland and re-establish government control.
(AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
In this photo taken Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010, from left, U.S. soldiers Spc. Zachary Barbadillo, 23, from Waialua, Hawaii, Pfc. Matthew Woodley, 21, from Ozark, Ala., and Sgt. Joshua Rodriguez from Las Vegas, Nev., all of the 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, talk inside an armored vehicle in the Badula Qulp area, west of Lashkar Gah, in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan. They call themselves gypsies, the men of Bravo Company. Right now, the 140 American soldiers are living out of their Stryker infantry carriers, part of a force assisting a U.S. Marine offensive in the Taliban stronghold of Marjah by blocking any insurgent movement near a canal to the northeast.
(AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)
By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU, Associated Press Writer Alfred De Montesquiou, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 5 mins ago
MARJAH, Afghanistan – It could take weeks to reclaim the Taliban stronghold of Marjah, a top Marine commander said Sunday as thousands of U.S. troops and Afghan soldiers fought for a second day in NATO's most ambitious effort yet to break the militants' grip on Afghanistan's dangerous south.
"That doesn't necessarily mean an intense gun battle, but it probably will be 30 days of clearing," Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson said. "I am more than cautiously optimistic that we will get it done before that."
Squads of Marines and Afghan soldiers occupied a majority of Marjah, but gunfire continued as pockets of militants dug in and fought. Sniper fire forced Nicholson to duck behind an earthen bank in the northern part of the city where he toured the tip of the Marines' front line held by Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines.
"The fire we just took reflects how I think this will go — small pockets of sporadic fighting by small groups of very mobile individuals,"he said.
Explosions from controlled detonations of bombs and other explosives were being heard about every 10 minutes in the area.
"There's really a massive amount of improvised explosive devices," Nicholson said. "We thought there would be a lot, but we are finding even more than expected."
The second day of NATO's largest offensive since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan also was marked by painstaking house searches.
Using metal detectors and sniffer dogs, U.S. forces found caches of explosives rigged to blow as they went from compound to compound down streets riddled with thousands of homemade bombs and mines. Shots continued to ring out in some neighborhoods.
They also discovered several sniper positions, freshly abandoned and booby-trapped with grenades.
The troops also found two large caches of ammonium nitrate — a common ingredient in explosives — totaling about 8,800 pounds (4,000 kilograms), said Lt. Josh Diddams, a Marine spokesman.
"We're in the majority of the city at this point," Diddams said. He said the nature of the resistance has changed from the initial assault, with insurgents now holding ground in some neighborhoods.
"We're starting to come across areas where the insurgents have actually taken up defensive positions," he said. "Initially it was more hit and run."
NATO said it hoped to secure Marjah, the largest town under Taliban control and a key opium smuggling hub, within days, set up a local government and rush in development aid in a first test of the new U.S. strategy for turning the tide of the 8-year-old war.
At least two shuras, or meetings, have been held with local Afghan residents — one in the northern district of Nad Ali and the other in Marjah itself, NATO said in a statement. Discussions have been "good," and more shuras are planned in coming days as part of a larger strategy to enlist community support for the NATO mission, it said.
Afghan officials said Sunday that at least 27 insurgents had been killed in the operation.
Most of the Taliban appeared to have scattered in the face of overwhelming force, possibly waiting to regroup and stage attacks later to foil the alliance's plan to stabilize the area and expand Afghan government control in the volatile south.
Two NATO soldiers were killed on the first day of the operation — one American and one Briton — according to military officials in their countries. At least seven civilians had been wounded, but there were no reports of deaths, Helmand provincial spokesman Daoud Ahmadi said.
More than 30 transport helicopters ferried troops into the heart of Marjah before dawn Saturday, while British, Afghan and U.S. troops fanned out across the Nad Ali district to the north of the mud-brick town, long a stronghold of the Taliban.
Maj. Gen. Gordon Messenger told reporters in London that British forces "have successfully secured the area militarily" with only sporadic resistance from Taliban forces. A Taliban spokesman insisted their fighters still controlled the town.
President Barack Obama was keeping a close watch on combat operations, White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said.
Vietor said Defense Secretary Robert Gates would have the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, brief Obama on Sunday.
In Marjah, most of the Marines said they would have preferred a straight-up gunbattle to the "death at every corner" crawl they faced.
"Basically, if you hear the boom, it's good. It means you're still alive after the thing goes off," said Lance Corp. Justin Hennes, 22, of Lakeland, Florida.
Local Marjah residents crept out from hiding after dawn Sunday, some reaching out to Afghan troops partnered with Marine platoons.
"Could you please take the mines out?" Mohammad Kazeem, a local pharmacist, asked the Marines through an interpreter. The entrance to his shop had been completely booby-trapped, without any way for him to re-enter his home, he said.
The bridge over the canal into Marjah from the north was rigged with so many explosives that Marines erected temporary bridges to cross into the town.
"It's just got to be a very slow and deliberate process," said Capt. Joshua Winfrey of Stillwater, Oklahoma, a Marine company commander.
Lt. Col. Brian Christmas, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, said U.S. troops fought gunbattles in at least four areas of the town and faced "some intense fighting."
To the east, the battalion's Kilo Company was inserted into the town by helicopter without meeting resistance but was then "significantly engaged" as the Marines fanned out from the landing zone, Christmas said.
Marine commanders had said they expected between 400 and 1,000 insurgents — including more than 100 foreign fighters — to be holed up in Marjah, a town of 80,000 people that is the linchpin of the militants' logistical and opium-smuggling network in the south.
The offensive, code-named "Moshtarak," or "Together," was described as the biggest joint operation of the Afghan war, with 15,000 troops involved, including some 7,500 in Marjah itself. The government says Afghan soldiers make up at least half of the offensive's force.
Once Marjah is secured, NATO hopes to quickly deliver aid and provide public services in a bid to win support among the estimated 125,000 people who live in the town and surrounding villages. The Afghans' ability to restore those services is crucial to the success of the operation and in preventing the Taliban from returning.
___
Associated Press writers Noor Khan in Kandahar, Rahim Faiez and Heidi Vogt in Kabul, and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report.
--------
Snipers harass US, Afghan troops moving in Marjah
By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU, Associated Press Writer Alfred De Montesquiou, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 10 mins ago
MARJAH, Afghanistan – Sniper teams attacked U.S. Marines and Afghan troops across the Taliban haven of Marjah, as several gun battles erupted Monday on the third day of a major offensive to seize the extremists' southern heartland.
Multiple firefights in different locations taxed the ability of coalition forces to provide enough air support as NATO forces forged deeper into the town, moving through suspected insurgent neighborhoods, the U.S. Marines said.
In northern Marjah, an armored column came under fire from at least three separate sniper teams, slowing its progress. One of the teams came within 155 feet (50 meters) and started firing.
Troops braced for the estimated 2.5-mile (four-kilometer) march to link up with U.S. and Afghan troops who had been airdropped into the town. Small squads of Taliban snipers initiated firefights throughout the day in an attempt to draw coalition forces into a larger ambush.
The massive offensive involving some 15,000 U.S., Afghan and British troops is the biggest joint operation since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.
On Monday, Afghan military officials gave a more optimistic view of the progress being made, with Brig. Gen. Sher Mohammad Zazai saying Afghan and NATO forces have largely contained the insurgents and succeeded in gaining trust from residents, who have pointed out mine locations.
"Today there is no major movement of the enemy. South of Marjah they are very weak. There has been low resistance. Soon we will have Marjah cleared of enemies," Zazai said at a briefing in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of Helmand province. He added that only three Afghan troops had been injured.
However, the mission faced a setback on Sunday when two U.S. rockets slammed into a home outside Marjah, killing 12 civilians. NATO said Monday that the rockets missed their target by about 600 meters, or about a third of a mile. NATO had earlier said the rockets missed their target by just 300 meters.
The civilian deaths were a major blow to NATO and Afghan efforts to win the support of residents in the Marjah area, a Taliban logistical center and a base for the lucrative opium trade that finances the insurgency. Before the offensive began Saturday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai had pleaded for the Afghan and foreign commanders to be "seriously careful for the safety of civilians."
Karzai has called for a thorough investigation into the airstrike. Differing accounts have emerged about the details.
On Monday, Afghan Interior Minister Atmar said at the briefing in Lashkar Gah that nine civilians and two or three insurgents were among those killed, suggesting that insurgents were firing at troops from a civilian home.
"The reality is this ... the enemy did capture some civilians in their house and they were firing at our forces from this house. Unfortunately our forces didn't know that civilians were living in that house," he said.
The top NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, apologized for "this tragic loss of life" and suspended use of the sophisticated rocket system pending a thorough review.
The rockets were fired by the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, at insurgents who had attacked U.S. and Afghan forces, wounding one American and one Afghan, NATO said. However, the projectiles veered off target and blasted the home in northern Nad Ali district, which includes Marjah, NATO added.
Karzai spokesman Waheed Omar said the president "is very upset about what happened" and has been "very seriously conveying his message" of restraint "again and again."
Inside Marjah, sporadic firefights increased by midday as small sniper teams fired at U.S. Marines before withdrawing, hoping to lure them into chasing them into a larger ambush.
"Literally every time we stand up, we take rounds," warned one Marine over the radio.
Marines said their ability to fight back has been tightly constrained by strict new rules of engagement that make their job more difficult and dangerous. Under the rules, troops cannot fire at people unless they commit a hostile act or show hostile intent.
"I understand the reason behind it, but it's so hard to fight a war like this," said Lance Corp. Travis Anderson, 20, from Altoona, Iowa. "They're using our rules of engagement against us," he said, stating that his platoon had repeatedly seen men dropping their guns into ditches before walking away to melt among civilians.
Allied officials have reported two coalition deaths so far — one American and one Briton killed Saturday. Afghan officials said at least 27 insurgents have been killed in the offensive.
In unrelated incidents in southern Afghanistan, NATO said two service members died Sunday — one from small-arms fire and the other from a roadside bomb explosion. The international force did not disclose their nationalities, but the British defense ministry reported that a British soldier died Sunday of wounds suffered in an explosion.
----
n Marjah, however, there was little sign the Taliban were broken. Instead, small, mobile teams of insurgents repeatedly attacked U.S. and Afghan troops with rocket, rifle and rocket-propelled grenade fire. Insurgents moved close enough to the main road to fire repeatedly at columns of mine-clearing vehicles.
At midday at least six large gunbattles were raging across the town, and helicopter gunships couldn't cover all the different fighting locations.
The Taliban snipers appeared highly skilled at concealing themselves.
"I haven't seen anything, not one person, not a muzzle flash," said Richard Knie, of Hudson, Iowa, a former Marine and retired police officer embedded with the Marines as a law enforcement professional. "And I've been looking a lot."
ALERT
ISAF chopper crashes in northern Afghanistan, many killed
By Shahid Abbasi - Apr 6th, 2012 (No Comment)
11
Kabul/Islamabd: An International Security Assistance Force helicopter shot down in Pul-e-Khumri district, Baghlan province today.
“All onboard killed, area sealed off by enemy(NATO and ISAF forces),” Taliban claimed on Twitter.
ISAF officially denied the loss of force members and said in the statement that “ISAF rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicle crashed in northern Afghanistan today”.
Abdulqahar Balkhi @ABalkhi
URGENT| ISAF helicopter shot down in Pul-e-Khumri district,Baghlan province today at 05:00 pm. All onboard killed. Area sealed off by enemy.
6 Apr 12
The cause of the crash is currently being assessed, however initial reporting indicates there was no enemy activity in the area. The site has been secured and no injuries have been reported as a result of the incident.
In another release for media ISAF accepted the killing of a security personnel while saying “An International Security Assistance Force service member died following an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan today.”
Taliban also claimed that “heavy fighting took place this morning in Bawrhiyo area between Mujahideen (Taliban) and hireling troops known as ‘Campaign’, according to officials reporting from Marjah district of Helmand province.”
“The fighting broke out at 10:00 am and lasted till afternoon time when Mujahideen ambushed the enemy patrol when they tried to enter the area for an operation during which 18 security personnel were killed, 15 wounded and 3 enemy Ford Ranger 4WD vehicles and a tractor were destroyed with IEDs, the wreckages of which are still lying in the area” said on the official website representing Taliban’s shadow government in the country.
============
No comments:
Post a Comment