.Embattled US troops take cynical view of progress in Afghanistan
It was meant to be a routine patrol. But when a group of 28 American paratroopers and Afghan soldiers found themselves pinned down by the Taliban it almost ended in a bloodbath.
As many as 90 insurgents almost completely surrounded the platoon from the 82nd Airborne as they walked across open ground. With machine gun and sniper fire coming from almost all sides, the only place to hide was a ditch a foot deep.
Enemy rounds ripped into piled mud sending dust into their eyes. The insurgents trained their fire on anything that came into view – kit, radios and helmets.
"We need help now!" Kell Anderson, the platoon's leader, bellowed into his radio, going on to warn that they were fast running out of ammunition and about to take casualties.
Unable to clearly identify the insurgents' firing positions, the men could not call in mortars and had to wait for a pair of aircraft to arrive and perform swooping gun runs to provide cover for the men to dash to safety, rounds hitting the ground between their feet.
None of this happened in the southern badlands of Afghanistan where the Taliban are exacting a seemingly relentless death toll from mostly US and UK forces, but in Bala Murghab, in Badghis province in the far north-west.
A backwater in the war in Afghanistan, nine miles south of the border of Turkmenistan, it has been neglected for years by both Nato and the Afghan government. But it is places like Bala Murghab, in a supposedly more secure corner of the country, that expose the immense difficulties the country has ahead of it in building self-reliant security forces and persuading a new breed of increasingly competent Taliban fighters to lay down their arms.
"They are far more accurate in their firing here than in Helmand," said Jason Holland, squad leader of the patrol. "In Helmand we had more air coverage and indirect fire. We were never pinned down like we were yesterday."
Major Todd Grissom, battalion operations officer, described it as "the worst experience we have had here" since they arrived in October.
The fighting in Bala Murghab has been fierce ever since 4 November when the 82nd Airborne began painstakingly winning back an area where insurgent control began almost at the gates of the valley's small forward operating base.
As foreign ministers meet in London tomorrow, the effort to create a patch of government control nearly 2 miles wide and 4 miles long highlights the power of the counter-insurgency techniques the Americans have been vigorously implementing, but also the difficulties.
For one thing, a rapid "transition strategy" towards Afghan control seems out of the question in a valley where the support of the local population is still far from certain. The close working relationship the Americans have forged with the police and the army is exactly the sort of "embedded" training the US commander, Stanley McChrystal, has called for. But the local police chief is still crawling out from the shadow of the tribal mafia that did much to alienate the local people.
Last Sunday one of the 205 Afghan soldiers working in the area was taken away by helicopter (the roads in and out being under insurgent control). He had been arrested on suspicion of helping the Taliban fire mortars on to the main US base.
Even with extra troops it is hard to see the Afghan National Army (ANA) ever being able to survive the sort of attack the paratroopers came out of unscathed on Tuesday. One soldier, Lieutenant Justin Heddleson, estimated it might require as many as three companies of ANA, compared with the three US platoons who currently do the job.
"But there would be a far higher body count. The Taliban would come back within a year," he said.
Extra Afghan troops are meant to be on their way, but none of the 40,000 US soldiers earmarked as part of Barack Obama's 18-month "surge".
While non-US Nato allies have pledged many additional thousands for northern Afghanistan, they are often of limited use – particularly in Bala Murghab where a contingent of 235 Italians are hamstrung by national caveats imposed in Rome that prevent them from taking part in offensive operations.
While the US platoon were watching bullets whistle over their heads their Italian colleagues with whom they share a house were unable to help, and spent the time paving their section of the compound garden.
Standing up a clean and competent local government is an almost Sisyphean task in an area where a powerful network, part tribal, part criminal, has its hands in everything. Some local officials are believed by the Americans to be passing on "taxes" and information to the Taliban's shadow district governor, while others have close ties to insurgents. At least one government official has not been seen for months, such is his fear of being arrested by the Americans for what they say is his corruption.
In the town of Ludina, at the northernmost edge of the US security bubble, children may wear orange and blue anoraks with the logo of Nato's International Security Assistance Force, but there is little willingness among the town's men to help the Americans, despite gifts of cash and small reconstruction projects.
This week a man passing the checkpoint outside the nearby platoon house had his hands sprayed with a chemical. They turned bright pink – a clear indication he had been handling explosives. To the anger of the Americans, some of whom narrowly missed serious injury from a bomb they encountered while on patrol, the suspect was freed after a delegation of Ludina elders argued his case with the local government.
Reintegration will be high on the London agenda – the attempt to persuade insurgents to lay down their weapons. But but that might be hard for some to swallow, not least the US soldiers nearly cut down by a bomb this week.
Guardian
As many as 90 insurgents almost completely surrounded the platoon from the 82nd Airborne as they walked across open ground. With machine gun and sniper fire coming from almost all sides, the only place to hide was a ditch a foot deep.
Enemy rounds ripped into piled mud sending dust into their eyes. The insurgents trained their fire on anything that came into view – kit, radios and helmets.
"We need help now!" Kell Anderson, the platoon's leader, bellowed into his radio, going on to warn that they were fast running out of ammunition and about to take casualties.
Unable to clearly identify the insurgents' firing positions, the men could not call in mortars and had to wait for a pair of aircraft to arrive and perform swooping gun runs to provide cover for the men to dash to safety, rounds hitting the ground between their feet.
None of this happened in the southern badlands of Afghanistan where the Taliban are exacting a seemingly relentless death toll from mostly US and UK forces, but in Bala Murghab, in Badghis province in the far north-west.
A backwater in the war in Afghanistan, nine miles south of the border of Turkmenistan, it has been neglected for years by both Nato and the Afghan government. But it is places like Bala Murghab, in a supposedly more secure corner of the country, that expose the immense difficulties the country has ahead of it in building self-reliant security forces and persuading a new breed of increasingly competent Taliban fighters to lay down their arms.
"They are far more accurate in their firing here than in Helmand," said Jason Holland, squad leader of the patrol. "In Helmand we had more air coverage and indirect fire. We were never pinned down like we were yesterday."
Major Todd Grissom, battalion operations officer, described it as "the worst experience we have had here" since they arrived in October.
The fighting in Bala Murghab has been fierce ever since 4 November when the 82nd Airborne began painstakingly winning back an area where insurgent control began almost at the gates of the valley's small forward operating base.
As foreign ministers meet in London tomorrow, the effort to create a patch of government control nearly 2 miles wide and 4 miles long highlights the power of the counter-insurgency techniques the Americans have been vigorously implementing, but also the difficulties.
For one thing, a rapid "transition strategy" towards Afghan control seems out of the question in a valley where the support of the local population is still far from certain. The close working relationship the Americans have forged with the police and the army is exactly the sort of "embedded" training the US commander, Stanley McChrystal, has called for. But the local police chief is still crawling out from the shadow of the tribal mafia that did much to alienate the local people.
Last Sunday one of the 205 Afghan soldiers working in the area was taken away by helicopter (the roads in and out being under insurgent control). He had been arrested on suspicion of helping the Taliban fire mortars on to the main US base.
Even with extra troops it is hard to see the Afghan National Army (ANA) ever being able to survive the sort of attack the paratroopers came out of unscathed on Tuesday. One soldier, Lieutenant Justin Heddleson, estimated it might require as many as three companies of ANA, compared with the three US platoons who currently do the job.
"But there would be a far higher body count. The Taliban would come back within a year," he said.
Extra Afghan troops are meant to be on their way, but none of the 40,000 US soldiers earmarked as part of Barack Obama's 18-month "surge".
While non-US Nato allies have pledged many additional thousands for northern Afghanistan, they are often of limited use – particularly in Bala Murghab where a contingent of 235 Italians are hamstrung by national caveats imposed in Rome that prevent them from taking part in offensive operations.
While the US platoon were watching bullets whistle over their heads their Italian colleagues with whom they share a house were unable to help, and spent the time paving their section of the compound garden.
Standing up a clean and competent local government is an almost Sisyphean task in an area where a powerful network, part tribal, part criminal, has its hands in everything. Some local officials are believed by the Americans to be passing on "taxes" and information to the Taliban's shadow district governor, while others have close ties to insurgents. At least one government official has not been seen for months, such is his fear of being arrested by the Americans for what they say is his corruption.
In the town of Ludina, at the northernmost edge of the US security bubble, children may wear orange and blue anoraks with the logo of Nato's International Security Assistance Force, but there is little willingness among the town's men to help the Americans, despite gifts of cash and small reconstruction projects.
This week a man passing the checkpoint outside the nearby platoon house had his hands sprayed with a chemical. They turned bright pink – a clear indication he had been handling explosives. To the anger of the Americans, some of whom narrowly missed serious injury from a bomb they encountered while on patrol, the suspect was freed after a delegation of Ludina elders argued his case with the local government.
Reintegration will be high on the London agenda – the attempt to persuade insurgents to lay down their weapons. But but that might be hard for some to swallow, not least the US soldiers nearly cut down by a bomb this week.
Guardian
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