.Marines coaxing residents back to Helmand ghost town
Now Zad was a bustling city, the second largest in Afghanistan's southern Helmand Province, before Taliban fighters moved in and made it a stronghold several years ago. Now it is largely abandoned.
Capt. Andrew Terrell and his Marine Corps company have been charged with coaxing Now Zad back to life. The operation is part of a strategy to use the influx of U.S. troops ordered by President Obama to increase security in Afghan population centers and drive insurgents out.
Terrell and his company from 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment pushed into Now Zad in a major operation launched early last month, curtailing Taliban attacks and seizing explosives and other materials for hundreds of bombs.
"This is the most heavily IED'ed city in all of Afghanistan," said Terrell, referring to the bombs known as improvised explosive devices that are planted everywhere in Now Zad. With his troops facing only sporadic Taliban small-arms fire on the northern outskirts of Now Zad, Terrell's main job is to clear out the bombs and encourage Afghan civilians to move back in.
Last month, when Washington stores were packed with Christmas shoppers, Terrell was anxiously awaiting the arrival of the first bargain-hunters at a newly reopened bazaar in Now Zad.
"I had a produce shop open today," he said by satellite phone on Christmas Eve from Now Zad, where scores of his men are encamped in tents on dusty outposts.
"This was the first day we had people coming to buy things," said Terrell, a decorated veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan who graduated from Virginia Tech with a geography degree in 2002.
In the bazaar, which begins just beyond the east wall of the Marine camp, Terrell is using U.S. commanders' emergency funds to pay about 300 to 450 Afghans $5 per person each day to clean up shops under a cash-for-works project. In all, 600 to 1,000 people are visiting the bazaar each day, he said. Other Afghans are working under the program to repair an underground irrigation system to get water back into fields and orchards where apples and pomegranates once grew.
Terrell said he hopes residents will begin to return soon. "No one is living in the town yet, but a lot are repairing their houses," he said, adding that about 50 families are expected to move in this month.
After the Marines made sure the town's school was not rigged with bombs, classes began, and more than 100 Afghan children are attending each day, Terrell said.
Col. Randy Newman, who is overseeing the operation as commander of Marine Regimental Combat Team 7, said that many Afghans displaced from Now Zad are living in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah and smaller surrounding villages. "We are assured by our Afghan partners that people want to go back," Newman said in an interview last month.
A new district governor for Now Zad recently moved into the Marine compound with Terrell, and about 100 Afghan soldiers and 50 police officers who patrol with the Marines are living nearby. The last company that served in Now Zad suffered high casualties, but Terrell's company has not lost any Marines. In one encouraging sign, some Afghan civilians in the vicinity have started tipping the Marines off to planted bombs, Terrell said.
"Their trust in us is our security," he said.
WaPo
Capt. Andrew Terrell and his Marine Corps company have been charged with coaxing Now Zad back to life. The operation is part of a strategy to use the influx of U.S. troops ordered by President Obama to increase security in Afghan population centers and drive insurgents out.
Terrell and his company from 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment pushed into Now Zad in a major operation launched early last month, curtailing Taliban attacks and seizing explosives and other materials for hundreds of bombs.
"This is the most heavily IED'ed city in all of Afghanistan," said Terrell, referring to the bombs known as improvised explosive devices that are planted everywhere in Now Zad. With his troops facing only sporadic Taliban small-arms fire on the northern outskirts of Now Zad, Terrell's main job is to clear out the bombs and encourage Afghan civilians to move back in.
Last month, when Washington stores were packed with Christmas shoppers, Terrell was anxiously awaiting the arrival of the first bargain-hunters at a newly reopened bazaar in Now Zad.
"I had a produce shop open today," he said by satellite phone on Christmas Eve from Now Zad, where scores of his men are encamped in tents on dusty outposts.
"This was the first day we had people coming to buy things," said Terrell, a decorated veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan who graduated from Virginia Tech with a geography degree in 2002.
In the bazaar, which begins just beyond the east wall of the Marine camp, Terrell is using U.S. commanders' emergency funds to pay about 300 to 450 Afghans $5 per person each day to clean up shops under a cash-for-works project. In all, 600 to 1,000 people are visiting the bazaar each day, he said. Other Afghans are working under the program to repair an underground irrigation system to get water back into fields and orchards where apples and pomegranates once grew.
Terrell said he hopes residents will begin to return soon. "No one is living in the town yet, but a lot are repairing their houses," he said, adding that about 50 families are expected to move in this month.
After the Marines made sure the town's school was not rigged with bombs, classes began, and more than 100 Afghan children are attending each day, Terrell said.
Col. Randy Newman, who is overseeing the operation as commander of Marine Regimental Combat Team 7, said that many Afghans displaced from Now Zad are living in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah and smaller surrounding villages. "We are assured by our Afghan partners that people want to go back," Newman said in an interview last month.
A new district governor for Now Zad recently moved into the Marine compound with Terrell, and about 100 Afghan soldiers and 50 police officers who patrol with the Marines are living nearby. The last company that served in Now Zad suffered high casualties, but Terrell's company has not lost any Marines. In one encouraging sign, some Afghan civilians in the vicinity have started tipping the Marines off to planted bombs, Terrell said.
"Their trust in us is our security," he said.
WaPo
posted by madtom at 12:32 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home