.Marjah inroads slowed by new bombs
Lt Col Cal Worth, who commands one of two Marine battalions leading the offensive against Taliban fighters here, set off at 7am on Wednesday for the return journey to his battalion headquarters from a combat outpost less than four miles away.
In a place where homemade bombs are buried under seemingly every road, this trip was supposed to be safe and easy: A team of Marine engineers and ordnance-disposal experts had swept the route 48 hours earlier, unearthing and blowing up seven mines. But on Wednesday, Col Worth’s convoy had travelled less than a mile before the engineers discovered a mine on the rutted road. They would later find three more – all planted in the same intersection as the seven mines they found Monday.
Col Worth’s Sisyphean challenge of moving about in Marjah suggests that Taliban bombmakers, and those who burrow the devices into the dirt roads here, have not been cowed by the presence of two US Marine battalions and a large contingent of Afghan soldiers. Nor have scores of other insurgent fighters, who kept up a steady pace of attacks on coalition forces on Wednesday, firing assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades at their bases and patrols.
Although US and Afghan forces have made steady inroads here since beginning the largest military operation of the war four days ago, they only control a few modest patches of this farming community, principally around the two biggest bazaar areas. Much of Marjah has not yet been patrolled by troops on the ground, and video images from surveillance drones have shown Taliban fighters operating with impunity in those places.
US and Nato commanders were not certain the insurgents who have lorded over Marjah for the past three years would stand and fight or flee to parts of Afghanistan with fewer international security forces. It now appears clear that many Taliban members here have opted to stay – at least for now.
That may mean many more weeks of arduous house-to-house clearing operations for the Marines and Afghan forces in this 155-square-mile area, making this a far more complex and dangerous mission than initially envisaged, and it could delay some efforts to deliver government services and reconstruction projects to the 80,000 people who live here.
“It’s early days yet,” said the British army’s Maj Gen Nick Carter, the overall commander of international forces in southern Afghanistan. “You’re dealing with a large area, with a lot of people in it. It’s going to take a while to clear it.”
Even if insurgents are not fleeing, they are also not winning any of their fights with the Marines. Dozens of militants – there is no authoritative count – have been killed since the operation began. Only One Marine has died.
Senior US military officials have been encouraged by the relatively low level of coalition casualties – more Marines have been evacuated for hypothermia and knee and ankle strains than for gun and bomb wounds – and by the fact that combat engineers have discovered dozens of roadside bombs before they have struck tactical vehicles.
The low level of injuries is due, in large part, to the Marines’ deliberate approach in moving about the area. Instead of driving all over hunting down insurgents, they have been moving in cautious convoys that are preceded by sophisticated minesweeping gear.
Marine commanders remain optimistic that their initial efforts at establishing bubbles of security around key commercial areas will have a catalyzing effect on the population and will result in residents identifying Taliban fighters, bomb locations and arms caches.
Thus far, however, most residents seem to be opting for a wait-and-see approach. Most roads used by the Marines have been devoid of people, save for a few curious gawkers. The bazaars are similarly abandoned, some so hastily that merchants left their onions and potatoes sitting atop wooden carts.
“When they see us providing security, we think they’ll choose the side they think will be victorious in the long term,” Col Worth said.
When Col Worth departed from his Bravo Company’s base next to the Koru Chreh bazaar at 7am, he figured he was giving himself more than enough time to make it back by 10am for what was to be the first meeting of shopkeepers and community leaders. Next up on his schedule, at noon, was a visit by the top Marine commander in Afghanistan and the governor of Helmand province.
By 9:30am, his convoy ground to a halt when the engineers found the first bomb at a the narrow intersection. where they had to turn south to the battalion headquarters. At 10:30am, while munching pretzels in his armoured truck, he received a radio message: The meeting of shopkeepers “was a no-show. Nobody came.”
He didn’t get an explanation. But a few shop owners have dropped by the battalion headquarters to inquire about the military operations and when it might be safe to reopen their stalls. Marine officers usher the visitors to an informal meeting area in the dilapidated compound they now call home: a plastic tarpaulin (for sitting on the floor, Afghan style) with a few treats in the center pulled from military rations — small boxes of Froot Loops, Nature Valley granola bars, New York Style mini bagel chips and Home Run peanuts.
When Gen Carter and the dignitaries arrived at his headquarters, Worth was still sitting on the road, waiting for the explosives-disposal experts to defuse the fourth bomb of the day. As the convoy parked on the road, the turret gunners spotted several men milling about in the bushes and Col Worth feared an ambush. To make matters worse, one of the trucks accidentally drove halfway into a canal, further exposing the forces.
The convoy finally got moving, before an attack could be mounted, but by then a group of Afghan soldiers had already raised their red, green and black flag in the bazaar for the dignitaries. The governor and the visiting generals walked around the rubbled market — large parts of which were destroyed by a US special forces airstrike in the spring of 2009 — and hailed the progress of the current mission.
“I have full confidence that Marja district will be very peaceful and it will be one of the best-developed district in Afghanistan,” said Helmand governor Gulab Mangal.
When Gen Carter was asked how long it would take to pacify Marjah, he said it was impossible to predict. “You can’t put a time on it ... You just have to take it slowly but surely, and the people will be won around in due course.”
Col Worth missed all of it. He arrived 30 minutes after they departed – and 7½ hours after he set off.
After the dignitaries left, the Afghan soldiers who raised their large, shiny tricolor pulled it down and replaced it with a smaller, faded one.
“It’s still dangerous in this area,” one soldier said. The Taliban “might burn it.”
FT
In a place where homemade bombs are buried under seemingly every road, this trip was supposed to be safe and easy: A team of Marine engineers and ordnance-disposal experts had swept the route 48 hours earlier, unearthing and blowing up seven mines. But on Wednesday, Col Worth’s convoy had travelled less than a mile before the engineers discovered a mine on the rutted road. They would later find three more – all planted in the same intersection as the seven mines they found Monday.
Col Worth’s Sisyphean challenge of moving about in Marjah suggests that Taliban bombmakers, and those who burrow the devices into the dirt roads here, have not been cowed by the presence of two US Marine battalions and a large contingent of Afghan soldiers. Nor have scores of other insurgent fighters, who kept up a steady pace of attacks on coalition forces on Wednesday, firing assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades at their bases and patrols.
Although US and Afghan forces have made steady inroads here since beginning the largest military operation of the war four days ago, they only control a few modest patches of this farming community, principally around the two biggest bazaar areas. Much of Marjah has not yet been patrolled by troops on the ground, and video images from surveillance drones have shown Taliban fighters operating with impunity in those places.
US and Nato commanders were not certain the insurgents who have lorded over Marjah for the past three years would stand and fight or flee to parts of Afghanistan with fewer international security forces. It now appears clear that many Taliban members here have opted to stay – at least for now.
That may mean many more weeks of arduous house-to-house clearing operations for the Marines and Afghan forces in this 155-square-mile area, making this a far more complex and dangerous mission than initially envisaged, and it could delay some efforts to deliver government services and reconstruction projects to the 80,000 people who live here.
“It’s early days yet,” said the British army’s Maj Gen Nick Carter, the overall commander of international forces in southern Afghanistan. “You’re dealing with a large area, with a lot of people in it. It’s going to take a while to clear it.”
Even if insurgents are not fleeing, they are also not winning any of their fights with the Marines. Dozens of militants – there is no authoritative count – have been killed since the operation began. Only One Marine has died.
Senior US military officials have been encouraged by the relatively low level of coalition casualties – more Marines have been evacuated for hypothermia and knee and ankle strains than for gun and bomb wounds – and by the fact that combat engineers have discovered dozens of roadside bombs before they have struck tactical vehicles.
The low level of injuries is due, in large part, to the Marines’ deliberate approach in moving about the area. Instead of driving all over hunting down insurgents, they have been moving in cautious convoys that are preceded by sophisticated minesweeping gear.
Marine commanders remain optimistic that their initial efforts at establishing bubbles of security around key commercial areas will have a catalyzing effect on the population and will result in residents identifying Taliban fighters, bomb locations and arms caches.
Thus far, however, most residents seem to be opting for a wait-and-see approach. Most roads used by the Marines have been devoid of people, save for a few curious gawkers. The bazaars are similarly abandoned, some so hastily that merchants left their onions and potatoes sitting atop wooden carts.
“When they see us providing security, we think they’ll choose the side they think will be victorious in the long term,” Col Worth said.
When Col Worth departed from his Bravo Company’s base next to the Koru Chreh bazaar at 7am, he figured he was giving himself more than enough time to make it back by 10am for what was to be the first meeting of shopkeepers and community leaders. Next up on his schedule, at noon, was a visit by the top Marine commander in Afghanistan and the governor of Helmand province.
By 9:30am, his convoy ground to a halt when the engineers found the first bomb at a the narrow intersection. where they had to turn south to the battalion headquarters. At 10:30am, while munching pretzels in his armoured truck, he received a radio message: The meeting of shopkeepers “was a no-show. Nobody came.”
He didn’t get an explanation. But a few shop owners have dropped by the battalion headquarters to inquire about the military operations and when it might be safe to reopen their stalls. Marine officers usher the visitors to an informal meeting area in the dilapidated compound they now call home: a plastic tarpaulin (for sitting on the floor, Afghan style) with a few treats in the center pulled from military rations — small boxes of Froot Loops, Nature Valley granola bars, New York Style mini bagel chips and Home Run peanuts.
When Gen Carter and the dignitaries arrived at his headquarters, Worth was still sitting on the road, waiting for the explosives-disposal experts to defuse the fourth bomb of the day. As the convoy parked on the road, the turret gunners spotted several men milling about in the bushes and Col Worth feared an ambush. To make matters worse, one of the trucks accidentally drove halfway into a canal, further exposing the forces.
The convoy finally got moving, before an attack could be mounted, but by then a group of Afghan soldiers had already raised their red, green and black flag in the bazaar for the dignitaries. The governor and the visiting generals walked around the rubbled market — large parts of which were destroyed by a US special forces airstrike in the spring of 2009 — and hailed the progress of the current mission.
“I have full confidence that Marja district will be very peaceful and it will be one of the best-developed district in Afghanistan,” said Helmand governor Gulab Mangal.
When Gen Carter was asked how long it would take to pacify Marjah, he said it was impossible to predict. “You can’t put a time on it ... You just have to take it slowly but surely, and the people will be won around in due course.”
Col Worth missed all of it. He arrived 30 minutes after they departed – and 7½ hours after he set off.
After the dignitaries left, the Afghan soldiers who raised their large, shiny tricolor pulled it down and replaced it with a smaller, faded one.
“It’s still dangerous in this area,” one soldier said. The Taliban “might burn it.”
FT
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