It’s a 30-hour trek from Lejeune to Afghanistan

[thedrifter]

Confined to Afghan outpost by rocket attacks, unit finds ways to pass the time


By Kent Harris, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Wednesday, June 4, 2008

ZEROK, Afghanistan — Zerok Combat Outpost, at the edge of a plateau about 7,700 feet above sea level, is surrounded by mountain ridges rising several hundred feet higher.

Enemies love to climb on the far side of those ridges and lob rockets and missiles toward the soldiers below.

It happened Saturday morning. And Saturday afternoon. And Sunday morning. And more than 100 times since 3rd Platoon, Company D, 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment arrived in this area, in eastern Afghanistan, in May 2007. Most of the time, the projectiles don’t come very close to hitting their targets. Soldiers hunker down in bunkers, while those in the watchtowers make sure no one attacks the perimeter.

Spcs. Russell Chappell and William Judd were wounded by shrapnel when a rocket hit their tower last August. They were eventually evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, but they’re now back with their unit.

First Lt. Justin Thornburg, who has led the platoon for three months, says their assailants know they only have a few minutes to get off their shots before the Americans either return fire or call for air support. Their aim isn’t accurate because they have to run for cover. If they stayed with the launchers, they could be bombed from above, but the soldiers aren’t about to go chasing them up the mountains.

The platoon was supposed to rotate into the compound for about a month at a time with another platoon, but those soldiers have largely been needed elsewhere. So there was an 87-day stint in the winter and another 67-day stint. They’ve currently been on post for about 33 days.

Soldiers admit that the days can run together.

"I don’t know what date it is," Spc. Corey McRae admits. "I don’t know what day of the week it is."

Attacks serve to break up the monotony, according to Thornburg. "It’s about 95, 96 percent boredom with about 5 percent excitement," he said.

He and Sgt. 1st Class Paul Makwakwa have to make sure the soldiers are combat ready. And that they don’t dwell on the fact that they’re essentially target practice for insurgents. Makwakwa, with 16 years in the Army, has 10 years on everyone else. Most are either noncommissioned officers or getting ready to join those ranks. All but a few have been promoted during the deployment.

Several were members of the battalion when it last deployed to eastern Afghanistan in 2005-2006.

Spc. Robert Hool says he remembers driving up the mountainous road to Zerok from Orgun-E routinely. There wasn’t a compound then, but soldiers stayed overnight in Zerok or in the village of Naka even further up into the mountains.

"A lot has changed," he said. "There’s been a lot more contacts. Direct and indirect. It seems like this is where they all fled to in the time we left and came back."

A new school the battalion had opened at the end of its last rotation sits abandoned just outside the compound. The locals don’t want to use it because it’s too close to the constant attacks.

Much of the troops’ leisure time is spent lifting weights in a workout area they built themselves. Sgt. Richard Donofrio, a 21-year-old from New Jersey, is probably the strongest guy on the compound. He is close to achieving a 500-pound dead lift.

Soldiers spend hours playing assorted shooter games on an Xbox in the Morale, Welfare and Recreation room, attached to the weight room. As many as four can play at one time. Most of the time, the person starting the game has to bang on it to get rid of the dust before it works.

"You’ve got to think of other things" besides the next attack, says Spc. Jason Leehan, the platoon medic, adding that if you don’t, "it would drive you nuts."

Another morale booster comes in the form of Pfc. Jordan Davis, a cook rotated into the compound who puts together breakfast and dinner every day. Lunch comes in the form of MREs.

The latest morale booster is the feeling that it won’t be long until they’re back in Vicenza, Italy — and away from the rockets, the dust and the football field-sized complex they’ve called home for much of the last 13 months.

"It’s been a long deployment," Hool says.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

In Afghanistan, the NATO-led Force is 'Underresourced' For the Fight Against the Taliban
When it comes to combat, it is a coalition of the willing and not-so-willing
By Anna Mulrine
Posted June 5, 2008


KANDAHAR—Ask American troops in Afghanistan what ISAF means, and you are opening the door to a running joke: "I Saw Americans Fight," and "I Suck at Fighting," and "I Sunbathe at FOBs" (a reference to the heavily fortified and largely safe forward operating bases) are among the more popular punch lines. In fact, ISAF is the acronym for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, which is made up of soldiers from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, and 35 other nations.

And the U.S. soldiers who offer up the jokes are only half kidding. Their point is a serious one: that troops from the United States—along with just a handful of other countries—do the bulk of the heavy fighting, while a number of other ISAF detachments are limited by their own governments' combat restrictions. These include prohibitions, or "caveats," against, for example, fighting in the snow for troops from some southern European nations. Other soldiers are required to stay in calmer areas of the country or to keep their aircraft grounded at night or to consult their home legislatures before operating near the volatile Pakistani border.

These are handicaps, to be sure, though last week the outgoing head of ISAF took exception to criticism of the coalition. As he prepared to hand over the reins of the command he has held since February 2007, American Gen. Dan McNeill pointed out that the number of international soldiers in Afghanistan has grown from 36,000 troops at the beginning of his tenure to nearly 53,000 today. It is proof, he asserted, of the international alliance's commitment to the country. "That says to me that all the wags who in late 2006 and early 2007 were predicting the failure and fracture of the NATO alliance probably got it wrong," he said.

Troop shortage. But "probably" remains the operative word. And considerable challenges awaited Gen. David McKiernan, the former commanding general of the U.S. Army in Europe and former commander of ground forces during the 2003 Iraq invasion, as he took the helm of ISAF June 3. Violence is up 50 percent in eastern Afghanistan compared with 2007, and the drug trade is exploding. Last year, too, there were 140 suicide bombings here, a record number. ISAF fields one third the number of foreign troops in Iraq, yet Afghanistan is 50 percent larger and has some 4 million more people. So, despite the increase in troop numbers, McNeill says the country still needs more. "It's an underresourced force," he said. "That's been a constant theme since I've been here."

It is a theme that has been echoed by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates as well, who has expressed concern that NATO could become a "two-tiered alliance," with only a handful of countries—namely Australia, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States—willing to "fight and die" against the Taliban. Gates lobbied hard in Europe earlier this year for more troops, writing to every alliance defense minister. France agreed to 700 more soldiers, and Poland 400 plus eight badly needed helicopters. Georgia (which hopes to become a NATO member) is sending 500 soldiers.

But beyond that, there were no big takers among NATO leaders facing their own political pressure on the home front. In the end, the United States upped its own commitment—something the Pentagon initially said it would not do—sending 3,200 marines into Helmand province, the heart of the drug trade and Taliban resistance.

It has been a tough fight for them. Marines are now on Day 30-plus of what was initially expected to be a three-to-five-day campaign, as they live without electricity or running water and face Taliban reinforcements who continue to flow into their territory from neighboring Pakistan. But they are making key strides, military officials say, with a recent operation to block escape routes and cut off Taliban supply lines.

"Mowing the lawn." They are operating in an area that British forces, hobbled by insufficient troop levels, have tried to clear before. One British commander referred to it as "mowing the lawn," since the insurgency seems to just grow back.

The question is, what happens next? Other allies—France, for one—have suggested that Afghanistan's U.S.-backed government will need to hold reconciliation talks with insurgents from the former Taliban regime but not until some level of security is established. Earlier this year, the American ambassador to Afghanistan sought advice from a former Taliban commander, asking what ISAF could do to reduce popular support for the Taliban. Reconciliation steps are important in Afghanistan, note allies, who see the fight here as a classic counterinsurgency struggle.

Such campaigns place a premium on unity of command, which can be tricky to achieve, notes Council on Foreign Relations analyst Stephen Biddle. "You can easily imagine thousands of operations at cross hairs with each other," he says. "It's tremendously easy to let everything splinter, and that's if everyone's from the same country." And here, that's not the case. As a result, there have been some glitches. Most recently, when marines here first arrived, they were in a holding pattern for a month while ISAF's Regional Command South, led by Canada, wrestled with how exactly to use them and what precisely would be their operational goals.

Further, there is what some military officials describe as lingering U.S.-British tension over the handling of operations in Basra, Iraq, earlier this year, when the U.S. military was training Iraqi security forces for a mission that the Iraqis executed prematurely in the area under British security oversight. While British forces were said to feel left out of the loop, their sentiment left some U.S. forces nonplused. "Brits are so enamored with what they did in [Northern] Ireland," says one senior U.S. military official. "They think they have all this great [counterinsurgency] background, but at the highest levels, they are very politically sensitive and not very aggressive. In Afghanistan, I have seen them reach in and say, 'This colonel here has too many casualties.' "

But these are differences among higher-level officials and not among the soldiers in the field. "The Brits are great," says one marine, to widespread nods among comrades in the courtyard around his austere outpost in Helmand. British troops here, for their part, return the sentiment and express wonder at the myriad small restrictions on U.S. troops—such as prohibitions against wearing civilian clothes like jeans or sandals or against having a beer during their downtime, as is permitted soldiers from some other nations.

On a recent evening, down the road from a U.S. Marine outpost in Helmand province, a Scottish soldier played a plaintive sunset serenade, the "Marine Corps Hymn," on his bagpipe. As they settle in for a long, hot summer, these troops are keenly aware that they are fighting a tenacious enemy together.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines’ ‘victory’ comes at high cost for AfghansPublished: Monday, 9 June, 2008, 02:27 AM Doha Time


By Aziz Ahmad Tassal, Mohamed Ilyas Dayee, Sefatullah Zahidi and Abaceen Nasimi
GARMSIR, Afghanistan: To hear the military tell it, its recent large-scale operation in the southern province of Helmand by a US Marine force was an unqualified success, driving Taliban insurgents from the restive region and restoring hope and confidence to villagers through the region.
The Marines “have disrupted the Taliban’s freedom of movement and pushed them south, and that has created the grounds for us to develop the hospital and set the conditions for the government to come back,” said Maj Neil Den-McKay, the officer commanding a company of the Royal Regiment of Scotland based here. People have already started coming back to villages north of the town, he said, adding, “there has been huge optimism from the people.”
But reporters on the ground found a very different story. This once bustling district is now a ghost town, with villages largely emptied of their populations.
In the village of Loy Kalai alone, 4,000 families fled once the Marines’ offensive started. More than half the houses were destroyed. Abandoned farm animals are beginning to die in the fields. The body of a man who appeared to have died from shrapnel wounds could be seen in one abandoned house. The smell of decay hung over the area.
“I could not believe what I was seeing,” said a resident who asked that his name not be used.
The Garmsir district has been the focus of a large-scale Nato operation code-named ‘Azada Wosa’ (‘Be Free’ in Pashto). The offensive, led by the 2,400-member strong US Marine Expeditionary Unit, began in the spring.
Garmsir is strategically located about 40 miles south of Helmand’s capital, Lashkar Gah, and is an important transit route for insurgents. The district also serves as a major hub for smuggling opium paste and heroin out of poppy-rich Helmand.
“This was a very successful operation,” Nato spokesman Brig Gen Carlos Branco said during a telephone interview late last month. “Only one US Marine was killed and four injured — two non-battle-related.”
He reiterated ISAF’s policy of not releasing casualty figures of Taliban, but added, “The Taliban are suffering huge losses. They are reinforcing the area in a very disorganised way.”
Branco also dismissed claims that there were a large number of civilian casualties. “I am not saying there were none, only that we have no reports.” He added that such reports that had appeared in the Afghan media were “highly exaggerated”.
“Our figures show 4,000 displaced persons, most of them from before the operation started,” he said.
Local officials and residents, however, tell a very different story.
According to Helmand Governor Gulab Mangal, the fighting has displaced 8,000 families, most of whom are in urgent need of assistance. Aid being provided by the UN in the area “cannot meet the needs of the people,” he said.
Many of the civilians who had fled the area told of numerous civilian casualties.
One man, who fled the area and asked that his name not be used, said he witnessed several women and children killed in the offensive.
“I saw two (Toyota minivans) full of women and children who were trying to get away,” he said. “The cars were bombed and completely destroyed. I cannot say how many were killed because we ran and hid, but we could see the fire and smoke coming out of them.” Abdul Karim, who had fled to the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah from a village in Garmsir, said four people were killed when a bomb struck his neighbor’s house.
“Almost everyone in Garmsir is leaving for either Pakistan or Lashkar Gah,” he said. “Those who don’t have money are just stuck in the desert.”
In Helmand’s deserts, where temperatures often reach more than 120 degrees, thousands of people are reported to be without shelter, food, or adequate drinking water.
Asadullah Mayar, head of the Red Crescent Society of Helmand province, said his organisation was doing the best it could under difficult conditions.
“The displaced people are in a very bad state,” he said. “They are not being helped. Last week we helped 280 families with tea, flour, oil and blankets. We have prepared assistance for an additional 700 families. But there are many more.”
Mayar concurred with the provincial governor’s estimate that about 8,000 families had fled their homes to other districts or desert areas.
“We will try and help them as soon as we can determine where they have gone,” he said.
Garmsir has long been a hotly contested area, serving as a key transit point for non-Afghan forces to enter the country to join their Taliban allies.
“Before the beginning of this operation, there were 500 foreign fighters in Garmsir,” said Mangal, the provincial governor. “Now the number has increased to 1,100, and more are coming every day.”
US and Nato forces have relied heavily on air strikes to dislodge Taliban forces, but it’s often the civilian population that bears the brunt of the assault.
Sher Agha, a resident of Garmsir, described scenes of chaos during the attacks.
“I saw old men, women, children, just running, trying to save themselves,” he said. “No one looked out for their children, their parents. It was everyone for himself.”
But Nato’s Branco described the operation as carefully planned and restrained. He insisted that there were no reports of civilian casualties “despite the intensity of the operations.” A US military official went so far as to claim that local residents support the Marines’ efforts.
“The Afghan citizens hold the insurgents responsible for the hardship they impose,” said Col. Peter Petronzio, commanding officer of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit. “The only criticism the Marines have received is that they are moving too slowly.” Nato’s Branco promised that better days were ahead for the region.
“Naturally, we regret any families who have left their homes, but once we have re-established Afghan government control they will return and will enjoy a better quality of life, free from the oppressive regime of the Taliban,” he said.
That’s a promise that many residents have heard before.
Back in September 2006, an operation led by international forces and the Afghan National Army reported clearing Garmsir of insurgents during an operation that lasted eight hours.
In 2007, foreign forces launched yet another operation in the region. By April of that year, Nato was issuing press releases insisting that the Taliban had been driven out and that “in districts such as Lashkar Gah, Naw Zad and Garmsir, local Afghans have started seeing the benefit of a safer environment.” Now Nato, along with the Marine forces, is again claiming success.
“This is the 20th time I’ve heard there are military operations in Helmand,” said Faruq Dawer, deputy director of the Civil Rights Organisation for Afghanistan, a local non-governmental group.
“When the Taliban go to a village, they don’t usually stay for a long time. Then the Americans come in and launch a military operation, counting civilian casualties as their military achievement,” he said. “When they leave the area, the Taliban come back in. This doesn’t make any sense — you cannot stabiliae the area this way.”
Dawer warns that such large-scale military operations are actually making the situation in Helmand province worse.
“Civilian casualties are the reason security is getting worse,” he said. “The relatives of those killed join the ranks of the enemy to exact revenge.” And it’s not just Nato and US forces that have a hard time distinguishing between the civilian population and Taliban fighters, Dawer said.
Because a large portion of the Afghan army is made up of recruits from the northern part of the country, many are unfamiliar with the overwhelmingly Pashtun south.
“For a non-Pashtun, all these turbaned people look like Taliban,” said Dawer. “But almost everyone wears a turban down there.
“This is the fourth week of the operation. But even if it goes on for four years, it will not have any result,” he said.
Nato and Marine leaders insist that this time they’ll get it right.
“There is no set end-date for the operation in Garmsir. Marines will stay until the mission has been accomplished,” said Capt Kelly Frushour, the public affairs officer of the 24th Expeditionary Force.
“And even though the Marines are not in Garmsir permanently, Nato and its forces remain committed to the mission there.” — The Institute for War & Peace Reporting/MCT
* Aziz Ahmad Tassal, Mohamed Ilyas Dayee, Sefatullah Zahidi and Abaceen Nasimi are reporters in Afghanistan who write for The Institute for War & Peace Reporting, a nonprofit organisation that trains journalists in areas of conflict.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

June 10, 2008
Applying Iraq’s Lessons in an Afghan Village
By CARLOTTA GALL

HAZARJOFT, Afghanistan — United States marines pushed the Taliban out of this village and the surrounding district in southern Helmand Province so quickly in recent weeks that they called the operation a “catastrophic success.”

Yet, NATO troops had conducted similar operations here in 2006 and 2007, and the Taliban had returned soon after they left. The marines, drawing on lessons from Iraq, say they know what to do to keep the Taliban at bay if they are given the time.

“There is definitely someone thinking out there,” said Capt. John Moder, commander of Company C of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, speaking of the Taliban. “That’s why we need these people to be at least neutral to us,” he said, gesturing to the farmers who have been slowly filtering back to harvest their fields.

Originally sent to Garmser District on a three-day operation to open a road, the marines have been here a month and are likely to stay longer. The extension of the operation reflects the evolving tactics of the counterinsurgency effort in Afghanistan, building on the knowledge accumulated in recent years in Anbar Province in Iraq.

The district of Garmser, a fertile valley along the Helmand River, had been under control of the Taliban and members of Al Qaeda for most of the last two years and much of it had become a war zone, as the Taliban traded fire with British troops based in the district center. One of the largest poppy-growing areas in the country, Garmser District has been an important infiltration route for the insurgents, sending weapons and reinforcements to the north and drug shipments to the south to the border with Pakistan.

Previous operations by NATO forces to clear the area of Taliban had yielded short-lived successes, as the Taliban have re-established control each time, Afghans from the area said. It is a strategy the insurgents have employed all over Afghanistan, using roadside and suicide bombs as well as executions to terrorize the people and undermine the authority of foreign forces and fledgling local governments.

In Garmser those with the means gave up and fled to the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. Interviewed there by telephone, they said they had been living as refugees for almost two years and were still afraid to return — and to be identified, for fear of retribution from the Taliban.

But Company C served in Anbar Province, once one of the most intractably violent areas of Iraq, which quieted last year under a new strategy of empowering local groups called Awakening Councils, which now provide security. The marines were confident they could put that experience to good use here.

Only when you win over a critical balance of the local population and empower them to stand up to the insurgents can you turn the situation around, several marines said.

First Lt. Mark Matzke led a platoon for nine months last year in the Anbar city of Ramadi, where he said he got to know every character in a small neighborhood, both the troublemakers and the power brokers. But it was only when he sneaked in after dark and listened to people’s grievances in private that he was able to work out a strategy for protecting them from the insurgents.

“Through listening to their grievances, you could figure out that the people did not like the insurgents,” he said. But their biggest fear was that the marines would pull out, he said, leaving them at the mercy of insurgents who would treat them as collaborators.

As trust was built up, the people began to side with the marines and started to tip them off about who the insurgents were and where to find them. “You just need to give them confidence,” he said.

In this village, only the poorest laborers and farmers have started filtering back, Lieutenant Matzke said, adding, “These people are completely broken.” They refused all assistance at first, he said, but after talking for a couple of hours they admitted they could use the help, but were afraid to accept it for fear of the Taliban.

The people were glad when the Taliban were driven away, the marines said, and that is a sentiment they need to nurture. “We need to convince the people we are here to help, and to exploit the fact that we can help,” Captain Moder said.

As a first step, the marines promised to provide a strong security cordon so those villagers who had fled could return without fear to rebuild their homes and reopen the bazaar.

When on patrol, the marines carry a small gadget the size of an old Polaroid camera that takes fingerprints, photos and an iris scan of people they meet. It is used to build a database of the residents so they can easily spot strangers, the marines say. The Afghans accepted the imposition without protest.

Observation on the ground, information from the populace and control of key commerce and transportation routes are all ways to prevent the Taliban from seeping back into the area, Col. Peter Petronzio, commander of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, said in an interview.

“You need physically to be there,” he said. “You need to continue to move about the population, let your presence be known, but do it in a way so that you are not smothering and overwhelming. You have got to let life go on.”

But the villagers remain scared, uncertain how long the marines will stay and who will follow in their wake.

“I don’t think I will go back until complete peace and security comes,” said one elder, who said he had heard his house had collapsed under bombardment. “This is not the first time we have suffered. Several times we have seen such operations against the Taliban, and after some time the forces leave the area and so the Taliban find a way to return.”

“If NATO really wants to bring peace and make us free from harm from the Taliban,” he said, “they must make a plan for a long-term stay, secure the border area, install security checkpoints along the border area, deploy more Afghan National Army to secure the towns and villages, and then the people will be able to help them with security.”

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Photos of 24th MEU in Southern Afghanistan

http://usmc.groups.vox.com/library/p...f5cbc0005.html

Ellie

[thedrifter]

24th MEU Marine operations in Afghanistan
American Infidel
Jun 9, 2008 at 2:11 PM

This edition features a story on Marine operations in Afghanistan that were launched
to deter taliban uprising. Produced by Senior Airman Jason Armstrong.
(By American Forces Network Afghanistan)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82Rn5...d849d0003-html

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Forgetting the Hold

Carlotta Gall kind of buried the lede here:

HAZARJOFT, Afghanistan — United States marines pushed the Taliban out of this village and the surrounding district in southern Helmand Province so quickly in recent weeks that they called the operation a “catastrophic success.”

Yet, NATO troops had conducted similar operations here in 2006 and 2007, and the Taliban had returned soon after they left. The marines, drawing on lessons from Iraq, say they know what to do to keep the Taliban at bay if they are given the time…

But Company C served in Anbar Province, once one of the most intractably violent areas of Iraq, which quieted last year under a new strategy of empowering local groups called Awakening Councils, which now provide security. The marines were confident they could put that experience to good use here.

Only when you win over a critical balance of the local population and empower them to stand up to the insurgents can you turn the situation around, several marines said.

First Lt. Mark Matzke led a platoon for nine months last year in the Anbar city of Ramadi, where he said he got to know every character in a small neighborhood, both the troublemakers and the power brokers. But it was only when he sneaked in after dark and listened to people’s grievances in private that he was able to work out a strategy for protecting them from the insurgents.

While the Marines seem to be aware of the “hold” part of the COIN strategy, “Clear Hold Build,” there is little evidence they really stick to that crucial middle step. This could be mostly a problem of manpower—that nasty, persistent problem of under-resourcing: there simply are not enough Marines to do much in an area the size of Helmand. But it also speaks to a critical weakness of the effort in Afghanistan: with troops spread so thinly, it is nearly impossible to respond to wide scale security incidents while also maintaining sufficient force to keep areas cleared so that reconstruction can begin.

Worse still, there is no indication the Marines understand enough about southern Pashtun culture to replicate their success in Anbar. For one, Helmand is not Anbar. Pashtuns are not organized into rigid hierarchical tribes the same way many Arab societies are (this was a painful lesson the British had to learn in the 19th century, when they coopted the tribal leadership of the Balochi but they found no traction in purchasing the loyalties of the Maliks or Lashgars of the Waziri or Mehsuds).

Taken more broadly, the attempt to replicate Anbar in Helmand poses many problems: in Anbar, the tribes rose up on their own, using their own militias against AQI. There is little evidence the local tribal structures in Lashkar Gah and Garmser are as structured as the Anbar tribes, and there is no evidence the Arbaki groups in the area are coherent enough to pose a consistent anti-Taliban front like the tribal militias did in Anbar.

While, according to Gall, the locals remain nervous about how long the pitiful few Marines in Helmand can remain in one place, the Marines are bragging about creating a security cordon—i.e. a quarantine—around Garmser, just like they did around Ramadi. The locals, meanwhile, complain of insufficient ANA numbers nearby, the uncontrolled border, and the very real possibility that the moment some militant group makes a grab at another town or district center, the Marines will abandon them.

They’re forgetting that the hold must be priority number 1, just as they’re forgetting their presence in Anbar was incidental to the Awakening. You can play off a grassroots revivalist movement, even encourage it to work toward your ends, but you cannot invent it as a foreign invader (it is helpful to remember that no matter our intentions, we are still foreign invaders to Afghanistan).

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Trip Illuminates Life on Bases Across Afghan Desert

by Ivan Watson

All Things Considered, June 12, 2008 · In Afghanistan, tens of thousands of NATO-led U.S. and foreign troops are battling a Taliban insurgency across eastern and southern Afghanistan. NPR's Ivan Watson and David Gilkey spent the past four days traveling across the network of NATO bases in southern Afghanistan and sent this postcard about the journey.

It took four days to travel from the Afghan capital of Kabul to a Marine outpost in the southern part of the country.

One of the first stops on the journey was the sprawling air base outside the city of Kandahar.

On Sunday night, thousands of soldiers stood on the tarmac here, to bid farewell to a Canadian soldier who died in the line of duty.

Capt. Jonathan Snyder died while on night patrol, when he accidentally fell into a 60-foot-deep well. Canada has lost 85 soldiers and one diplomat in Afghanistan, the highest wartime death toll for the Canadians since the Korean conflict nearly 55 years ago.

Some 2,500 Canadian soldiers are based outside Kandahar. They are part of a kaleidoscope of different military units deployed across southern Afghanistan.

Kandahar is the main transport and logistics hub for this turbulent region.

It takes less than an hour to fly aboard a C-130 cargo plane from Kandahar to the main British military base in Helmand province.

The British force of some 7,500 soldiers in Helmand suffered fresh casualties Sunday, when a suicide bomber attacked a foot patrol and killed three soldiers.

Lt. Col. Robin Matthews, spokesman for the British force, said one of those casualties represented the 100th death of British soldiers engaged in operations in Afghanistan.

"We're now dealing with a counterinsurgency campaign. … I think everybody now acknowledges the scale of the problem," Matthews said.

From the British base, a twin-rotor helicopter ferries U.S. Marines and equipment to Camp Dwyer, another British base that now is also home to the U.S. Marines 24th Expeditionary Unit.

The camp is a spartan place: no showers and little electricity. Marines swelter in the desert heat in tents with dirt floors infested by camel spiders the size of a hand.

On Wednesday, Staff Sgt. Dale Cortman prepared to lead a large supply convoy across Garmsir District, which had long been a lawless region near the border with Pakistan.

The Marines captured much of this district from the Taliban after weeks of fighting in May.

One of the Marines on board the supply convoy was 19-year-old Doug Hicks from Florida. His job was to guard three detainees in an armored truck.

The prisoners wore plastic flex-cuffs and blindfolds. Hicks barely interacted with them except to hand them bottles of water and occasionally order them, in Pashto, to shut up when they whispered to each other.

The convoy rolled down dirt roads, past endless fields of opium poppies and mud-brick farmhouses, some of which had been damaged during last month's fighting.

Hicks was not impressed.

"This place, I say it's pretty much hell. It's hot, dusty, doesn't rain. Everything's tan," he said.

The convoy finally arrived at the improvised headquarters of this company of Marines.

The young Marines stationed here made a long human chain and spent more than an hour in 120-degree heat offloading bottles of water from the trucks.

"If mail's on the truck, it's the highlight of the day," one Marine said, as he tossed water bottles under the hot sun. "If there ain't no mail, you just get ****ed off!" his neighbor answered.

When they finished the chore, a few lucky Marines learned that they had, in fact, received some mail. They sat in the dirt of their mud-brick compound and read letters out loud to each other under a setting sun.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines’ ‘victory’ comes at high cost for AfghansPublished: Monday, 9 June, 2008, 02:27 AM Doha Time


By Aziz Ahmad Tassal, Mohamed Ilyas Dayee, Sefatullah Zahidi and Abaceen Nasimi
GARMSIR, Afghanistan: To hear the military tell it, its recent large-scale operation in the southern province of Helmand by a US Marine force was an unqualified success, driving Taliban insurgents from the restive region and restoring hope and confidence to villagers through the region.
The Marines “have disrupted the Taliban’s freedom of movement and pushed them south, and that has created the grounds for us to develop the hospital and set the conditions for the government to come back,” said Maj Neil Den-McKay, the officer commanding a company of the Royal Regiment of Scotland based here. People have already started coming back to villages north of the town, he said, adding, “there has been huge optimism from the people.”
But reporters on the ground found a very different story. This once bustling district is now a ghost town, with villages largely emptied of their populations.
In the village of Loy Kalai alone, 4,000 families fled once the Marines’ offensive started. More than half the houses were destroyed. Abandoned farm animals are beginning to die in the fields. The body of a man who appeared to have died from shrapnel wounds could be seen in one abandoned house. The smell of decay hung over the area.
“I could not believe what I was seeing,” said a resident who asked that his name not be used.
The Garmsir district has been the focus of a large-scale Nato operation code-named ‘Azada Wosa’ (‘Be Free’ in Pashto). The offensive, led by the 2,400-member strong US Marine Expeditionary Unit, began in the spring.
Garmsir is strategically located about 40 miles south of Helmand’s capital, Lashkar Gah, and is an important transit route for insurgents. The district also serves as a major hub for smuggling opium paste and heroin out of poppy-rich Helmand.
“This was a very successful operation,” Nato spokesman Brig Gen Carlos Branco said during a telephone interview late last month. “Only one US Marine was killed and four injured — two non-battle-related.”
He reiterated ISAF’s policy of not releasing casualty figures of Taliban, but added, “The Taliban are suffering huge losses. They are reinforcing the area in a very disorganised way.”
Branco also dismissed claims that there were a large number of civilian casualties. “I am not saying there were none, only that we have no reports.” He added that such reports that had appeared in the Afghan media were “highly exaggerated”.
“Our figures show 4,000 displaced persons, most of them from before the operation started,” he said.
Local officials and residents, however, tell a very different story.
According to Helmand Governor Gulab Mangal, the fighting has displaced 8,000 families, most of whom are in urgent need of assistance. Aid being provided by the UN in the area “cannot meet the needs of the people,” he said.
Many of the civilians who had fled the area told of numerous civilian casualties.
One man, who fled the area and asked that his name not be used, said he witnessed several women and children killed in the offensive.
“I saw two (Toyota minivans) full of women and children who were trying to get away,” he said. “The cars were bombed and completely destroyed. I cannot say how many were killed because we ran and hid, but we could see the fire and smoke coming out of them.” Abdul Karim, who had fled to the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah from a village in Garmsir, said four people were killed when a bomb struck his neighbor’s house.
“Almost everyone in Garmsir is leaving for either Pakistan or Lashkar Gah,” he said. “Those who don’t have money are just stuck in the desert.”
In Helmand’s deserts, where temperatures often reach more than 120 degrees, thousands of people are reported to be without shelter, food, or adequate drinking water.
Asadullah Mayar, head of the Red Crescent Society of Helmand province, said his organisation was doing the best it could under difficult conditions.
“The displaced people are in a very bad state,” he said. “They are not being helped. Last week we helped 280 families with tea, flour, oil and blankets. We have prepared assistance for an additional 700 families. But there are many more.”
Mayar concurred with the provincial governor’s estimate that about 8,000 families had fled their homes to other districts or desert areas.
“We will try and help them as soon as we can determine where they have gone,” he said.
Garmsir has long been a hotly contested area, serving as a key transit point for non-Afghan forces to enter the country to join their Taliban allies.
“Before the beginning of this operation, there were 500 foreign fighters in Garmsir,” said Mangal, the provincial governor. “Now the number has increased to 1,100, and more are coming every day.”
US and Nato forces have relied heavily on air strikes to dislodge Taliban forces, but it’s often the civilian population that bears the brunt of the assault.
Sher Agha, a resident of Garmsir, described scenes of chaos during the attacks.
“I saw old men, women, children, just running, trying to save themselves,” he said. “No one looked out for their children, their parents. It was everyone for himself.”
But Nato’s Branco described the operation as carefully planned and restrained. He insisted that there were no reports of civilian casualties “despite the intensity of the operations.” A US military official went so far as to claim that local residents support the Marines’ efforts.
“The Afghan citizens hold the insurgents responsible for the hardship they impose,” said Col. Peter Petronzio, commanding officer of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit. “The only criticism the Marines have received is that they are moving too slowly.” Nato’s Branco promised that better days were ahead for the region.
“Naturally, we regret any families who have left their homes, but once we have re-established Afghan government control they will return and will enjoy a better quality of life, free from the oppressive regime of the Taliban,” he said.
That’s a promise that many residents have heard before.
Back in September 2006, an operation led by international forces and the Afghan National Army reported clearing Garmsir of insurgents during an operation that lasted eight hours.
In 2007, foreign forces launched yet another operation in the region. By April of that year, Nato was issuing press releases insisting that the Taliban had been driven out and that “in districts such as Lashkar Gah, Naw Zad and Garmsir, local Afghans have started seeing the benefit of a safer environment.” Now Nato, along with the Marine forces, is again claiming success.
“This is the 20th time I’ve heard there are military operations in Helmand,” said Faruq Dawer, deputy director of the Civil Rights Organisation for Afghanistan, a local non-governmental group.
“When the Taliban go to a village, they don’t usually stay for a long time. Then the Americans come in and launch a military operation, counting civilian casualties as their military achievement,” he said. “When they leave the area, the Taliban come back in. This doesn’t make any sense — you cannot stabiliae the area this way.”
Dawer warns that such large-scale military operations are actually making the situation in Helmand province worse.
“Civilian casualties are the reason security is getting worse,” he said. “The relatives of those killed join the ranks of the enemy to exact revenge.” And it’s not just Nato and US forces that have a hard time distinguishing between the civilian population and Taliban fighters, Dawer said.
Because a large portion of the Afghan army is made up of recruits from the northern part of the country, many are unfamiliar with the overwhelmingly Pashtun south.
“For a non-Pashtun, all these turbaned people look like Taliban,” said Dawer. “But almost everyone wears a turban down there.
“This is the fourth week of the operation. But even if it goes on for four years, it will not have any result,” he said.
Nato and Marine leaders insist that this time they’ll get it right.
“There is no set end-date for the operation in Garmsir. Marines will stay until the mission has been accomplished,” said Capt Kelly Frushour, the public affairs officer of the 24th Expeditionary Force.
“And even though the Marines are not in Garmsir permanently, Nato and its forces remain committed to the mission there.” — The Institute for War & Peace Reporting/MCT
* Aziz Ahmad Tassal, Mohamed Ilyas Dayee, Sefatullah Zahidi and Abaceen Nasimi are reporters in Afghanistan who write for The Institute for War & Peace Reporting, a nonprofit organisation that trains journalists in areas of conflict.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

4 Marines die in Afghanistan; 870 inmates escape

By NOOR KHAN and JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writers
2 hours, 14 minutes ago

About 870 prisoners escaped during a Taliban bomb and rocket attack on the main prison in southern Afghanistan that knocked down the front gate and demolished a prison floor, Afghan officials said Saturday. And in western Afghanistan on Saturday, a roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. military vehicle, killing four Americans in the deadliest attack against U.S. troops in the country this year, officials said.

The bomb in the western province of Farah targeted Marines helping to train Afghanistan's fledgling police force, said U.S. spokesman Lt. Col. David Johnson. One other Marine was wounded in the attack.

Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment based in Twentynine Palms, California, arrived in Afghanistan earlier this year and were sent to southern and western Afghanistan to train police.

The bombing comes one day after U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told his counterparts in Europe that for the first time, the monthly total of American and allied combat deaths in Afghanistan exceeded the toll in Iraq during May.

The four deaths bring to at least 44 the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan this year, according to an Associated Press count. No more than two U.S. personnel had been killed in any one attack in Afghanistan this year, according to the AP tally.

In the prison escape, the police chief of Kandahar province, Sayed Agha Saqib, said 390 Taliban inmates were among those who fled the prison during the attack late Friday.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force put the number of escapees slightly higher, at around 1,100, according to spokesman Brig. Gen. Carlos Branco. He conceded that the assault was a success.

"We admit it," Branco said. "Their guys did the job properly in that sense, but it does not have a strategic impact. We should not draw any conclusion about the deterioration of the military operations in the area. We should not draw any conclusion about the strength of the Taliban."

The complex attack included a truck bombing at the main gate, a suicide bomber who struck a back wall and rockets fired from inside the prison courtyard, setting off a series of explosions that rattled Kandahar, the country's second biggest city.

The rockets demolished an upper prison floor, said Mohammad Qasim Hashimzai, a deputy minister at the Justice Ministry. Nine police were killed in the attack, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary.

There were no indications that the militants received help from the inside, but as a precaution the prison's chief official, Abdul Qabir, was placed under investigation for possible involvement, Hashimzai said.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said 30 insurgents on motorbikes and two suicide bombers attacked Sarposa Prison.

NATO was providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets to help track fleeing militants, Branco said.

Afghan officials warned that the Taliban essentially boosted its force by 400 fighters because of the prison break, but Branco said NATO officials didn't think it would change the military situation.

"OK, they got some more fighters, more shooters," Branco said. "These guys who escaped from the prison are not going to change the operational tempo and they do not provide the Taliban with operational initiative."

A man who claimed to be one of the militants who escaped, Abdul Nafai, called an Associated Press reporter and said the insurgents had minibuses waiting outside the prison during the attack and that dozens of militants fled in the vehicles. Other witnesses and officials said the militants fled on foot into pomegranate and grape groves behind the prison.

Hashimzai said the jail did not meet international minimum standards for a prison. The Kandahar facility was not built as a prison but had been modified into one, he said.

A delegation of deputy ministers from the Justice and Interior ministries left for Kandahar early Saturday.

"Plans are under way to renovate all the prisons around the country," said Hashimzai. "Kandahar was one of them, but unfortunately what happened last night is cause for concern."

Kandahar was the Taliban's former stronghold and its province has been the scene of fierce fighting in the past two years between insurgents and NATO troops, primarily from Canada and the United States.

Qabir, the chief of Kandahar's Sarposa Prison, said the assault began when a tanker truck full of explosives detonated at the prison's main entrance, wrecking the gate and a police post, killing all the officers inside.

Soon after, a suicide bomber on foot blasted a hole in the back of the prison, Qabir said.

Ahmadi, the Taliban spokesman, said militants had been planning the assault for two months.

Canadian soldiers with NATO's International Security Assistance Force helped provide a security cordon after the attack.

Last month, some 200 Taliban suspects at the prison ended a weeklong hunger strike after a parliamentary delegation promised that their cases would be reviewed.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

After Battle in Afghanistan Villages,
Marines Open Complaint Shop
To Win Over Civilians, Soldiers Take
Claims for Damages; a Free Wind-Up Radio
By MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS
June 18, 2008; Page A1

GARMSIR, Afghanistan -- During a month of house-to-house combat, First Lt. Steven Bechtel's men fired about 500 mortar rounds at Taliban insurgents.

Now, he's paying the price.

Just two days after the main Taliban force was routed, Lt. Bechtel put aside his weapons and opened what amounts to a wartime complaints desk in a mud-brick hut. The lieutenant and his men spend their time cataloging the destruction and issuing vouchers to compensate villagers for their losses, whether caused by U.S. missiles or Taliban grenades.

"We're very sorry for the damage to your doors, but we had to make sure the Taliban didn't leave any bombs or weapons inside," Lt. Bechtel last week told Abdul Majid, a 70-year-old with a weathered face, a dense white beard and a cane made from a tree limb.

"It's no problem," Mr. Majid responded. "You're paying for it."

The First Battalion of the Sixth Marine Regiment was recently deployed to Afghanistan as part of a force, 3,000-strong, helping to turn the tide against a resurgent Taliban. What resulted was a conventional battle that raged through the villages and poppy fields of Garmsir District, a major waypoint for insurgents leaving safe havens in Pakistan, a sign of how far Western gains have slipped recently.

The fighting sent civilians fleeing into the surrounding desert. After the violence ebbed, the villagers returned, in many cases to homes cracked open by artillery, bombs, missiles and rocket-propelled grenades. Soon they were lined up at Lt. Bechtel's door, testing the Marines' ability to shift gears on the fly, from combat to the struggle for popular allegiance. Winning over the locals has always been a goal; now, it's happening in double-quick time.

"It just switched suddenly one day," says Lt. Bechtel, a soft-spoken 24-year-old from Naples, Fla., who decided in the eighth grade that he wanted to be a Marine. "All of the sudden there were civilians in the area."

More than 200 villagers have applied for compensation already, and a vendor has set up shop outside the coiled razor-wire barrier selling cigarettes and soda to the petitioners. At the first coils, the villagers, all men or boys, must lift their shirts or robes to show that they aren't wearing suicide vests. At the guard post, a Marine sentry pats them down before they're allowed to approach the office.

The walls inside are adorned with posters of sumptuous feasts and the holy city of Medina. They're property of the compound's owner. The Marines commandeered the man's residence during the fighting, and now scores of men from the battalion's Alpha Company camp in his buildings and sandy yard, for which they pay the equivalent of $60 a month in rent. The troops promise to leave as soon as they have built a base of their own. But the owner comes by almost daily to demand his house back, or at least more rent.

Verifying the Damage

The first time a villager comes to the complaint office, the lieutenant or his No. 2, Sgt. James Blake, a 25-year-old from Merrimack, N.H., jots down the claim on a piece of yellow legal paper. The petitioner takes the note to a Marine patrol in his neighborhood. The Marines verify the damage and send the man back to Lt. Bechtel.

At the second meeting, the Marines tally up the cost, using data on an Excel spreadsheet that the lieutenant, who majored in mechanical-engineering at Virginia Military Institute, compiled using prices gathered from the local market:

-- One foot of mud wall knocked down: 300 afghanis ($6)

-- One wooden door smashed in: 1,000 afghanis ($20)

-- One acre of wheat burned: 15,000 afghanis ($300)

The Marines won't pay for damage to opium poppy fields.

A typical damage-assessment interview goes like this:

Sgt. Blake: "Were your windows glass, sir?"

Bismullah Jan, a 25-year-old wheat, corn and poppy farmer: "Yes."

Sgt. Blake: "How many cows, sir?"

Mr. Jan: "Three cows and three goats."

Sgt. Blake to his Pashto interpreter: "Hey, James, what's a good price for goats? Just a ballpark figure."

Interpreter: "5,000 or 6,000 afghanis." ($100 to $120)

Sgt. Blake adds up the damage and offers 251,000 afghanis ($5,020). Mr. Jan hoped for something more. He emptied his pockets and held up two 100 afghani bills, worth $2 each -- a plea of poverty.

"Unfortunately, all I can do is pay for damage caused when we were fighting the Taliban," Sgt. Blake told him apologetically.

On a single day last week , the Marines pledged $12,100 in reparations. "I'd rather be shooting mortars," says Sgt. Blake. "But I understand why we're doing this, paying for the damage we caused. And I like helping people out as much as we can."

The Marines take retinal and fingerprint scans of all petitioners -- when the scanner works. When it doesn't, as is often the case amid the dust clouds and the 125-degree heat, they use a regular digital camera to snap mug shots taken against handwritten height marks on the wall.

Taliban Threats

Taliban infiltrators have threatened to kill villagers who accept American money, according to U.S. intelligence reports. Still, petitioners keep coming.

"Congratulations -- you're No. 200," Sgt. Blake said when a man in a gold-embroidered skullcap entered the office the other day. "You've won a free radio."

The man greeted the news with a blank stare. But he willingly accepted the wind-up radio and a damage-assessment note to take to the Marine patrols.

Afghanistan is a wretchedly poor country and, often, villagers hope the Marines will do more than compensate them for battle damage. One man showed up with his son; their house was undamaged, but the boy had tuberculosis. Another man shows up almost every day just to say hello.

Mr. Majid, the elderly petitioner, patted Lt. Bechtel on the shoulder and removed his own blue turban -- gestures of gratitude -- when offered 36,000 afghanis, or about $720, to repair his house and restore his fields. Afterward, he requested medicine for his headaches and help feeding his family. By the time he left, Mr. Majid had a new radio, a few packaged military meals, Tylenol for his head and antidiarrhea medicine for his grandson.

There's one flaw in the Marines' campaign. While they freely issue compensation vouchers, they don't have any actual money to give out yet. The cash, the Marines tell the villagers, will be here on July 1. The date has already slipped once, from mid-June, and some people doubt they'll ever see the money. "If we don't pay them on the first," Sgt. Blake said, "it's going to be bad."

Write to Michael M. Phillips at michael.phillips@wsj.com

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Coalition units push Afghanistan offensive
Afghan and NATO forces retake 4 towns held by Taliban insurgents

By M. Karim Faiez and Laura King

June 19, 2008

KABUL, Afghanistan


Explosions echoed through vineyards and pomegranate groves yesterday as Afghan and NATO forces backed by helicopter gunships recaptured at least four villages in southern Afghanistan that had been seized by the Taliban, Afghan authorities said.

At least three dozen insurgents, including a commander, and two Afghan soldiers were killed in the Arghandab district northwest of Kandahar, Afghanistan's Defense Ministry said. By day's end, the insurgents were still in control of a half-dozen villages.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan's volatile south, four British soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Helmand province, Western military officials said. It was the largest number of British troops killed in a single incident this year, reflecting growing Taliban prowess in preparing and planting powerful improvised explosive devices.

The British troop loss came less than a week after four U.S. Marines were killed in a roadside bombing in Farah province, the highest American toll in an attack in Afghanistan this year.

Analysts have said that 2008 is shaping up as the most violent year since the toppling of the Taliban movement more than six years ago. NATO officials say the insurgency is being fueled by Taliban fighters who take shelter in Pakistan in between hit-and-run confrontations with Afghan and Western troops.

The Arghandab offensive, one of the largest in months by the Western-led coalition, was expected to take about three days, the NATO command said. Taliban forces, their ranks swelled by a jailbreak in Kandahar last week that freed hundreds of militants, moved into Arghandab late Sunday.

The densely populated farming district is an important gateway to Kandahar, 10 miles to the southeast. The city was the birthplace of the Taliban movement and is considered strategically pivotal to Afghanistan's entire south.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement yesterday that Kandahar "remains firmly under the control of the Afghan government, despite rumors that the Taliban might attack."

Thousands of villagers fled Arghandab before the offensive began at dawn yesterday. Civilians who remained in the area described militants taking shelter in culverts and along riverbanks as helicopter gunships raked the area with fire.

A tribal elder in Arghandab, Haji Ghulam Farooq, said the insurgents, armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, were fleeing northward as Afghan and Canadian troops moved in from the south on foot.

Taliban fighters generally shun confrontations with better-equipped Western-led forces, but insurgent commanders had expressed determination this time to hold their ground and to strike next at Kandahar.

NATO officials insisted yesterday that the size of the Taliban presence in the area had been greatly exaggerated. But villagers, local officials and Afghanistan's Defense Ministry said the Taliban force numbered in the hundreds.

NATO estimates of the number of refugees also have been at odds with those of local officials. Brig. Gen. Carlos Branco, a NATO spokesman, had said that villagers did not appear to be fleeing in large numbers, but witnesses described a panicked exodus of hundreds of farm families.

Ahmed Wali Karzai, a provincial commissioner and a brother of President Hamid Karzai, put the number of those who had taken shelter in and near Kandahar at about 1,500 families, or about 4,000 people.

The governor of Kandahar province, Asadullah Khalid, said yesterday that Afghan authorities had appealed for United Nations help in dealing with those displaced by the conflict.

In eastern Paktika province, two coalition soldiers were killed and 10 wounded when their patrol was attacked by insurgents, the military reported without providing details. Fighting also flared yesterday in Zabol province, which adjoins Kandahar province.

M. Karim Faiez and Laura King write for the Los Angeles Times.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

BBC24 _ABCNEWS_AFGHANISTAN_080617

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24thmeu/2591558485/

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Afghans: Taliban cleared from near Kandahar
By Noor Khan - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Jun 19, 2008 10:30:01 EDT

ARGHANDAB, Afghanistan — A swift offensive by Afghan and NATO forces has driven Taliban militants from a strategic group of villages they had infiltrated outside southern Afghanistan’s largest city, Afghan officials said Thursday.

Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid said militants fled the villages in Arghandab district after overnight battles and airstrikes. Khalid claimed “hundreds” of Taliban were wounded or killed over the last several days of fighting.

NATO officials have not confirmed that figure, nor said if Arghandab is now militant-free. But NATO spokesman Mark Laity did confirm that the alliance launched a “limited number of successful airstrikes” overnight.

“We don’t have a definitive assessment, though casualties were inflicted,” Laity said. “The main point is that it has helped ensure the continuing success of the mission.”

Laity said the joint Afghan-NATO mission is progressing through Arghandab “methodically and successfully” and has met minimal resistance.

The deputy commander of Afghan forces in Kandahar, Aminullah Pathyani, said Thursday that militants had been pushed out of the remaining six villages they controlled Wednesday.

Afghan officials have said the Taliban infiltrated 10 villages in the Arghandab river valley, a lush fruit-filled region just 10 miles northwest of Kandahar. Arghandab is a strategic military vantage point sought by the Taliban for its proximity to their former power base.

The Afghan army said Monday that up to 400 militants poured into the Arghandab area. That followed a bold Taliban attack on the Kandahar prison last Friday that freed 900 inmates, including 400 Taliban fighters.

Canadian military officials who patrolled through Arghandab this week reported “no obvious signs” of insurgent activity. But that didn’t mean there were no Taliban there, a NATO news release said.

U.S. and NATO officials have repeatedly played down the scope of the Taliban push into Arghandab. But the swift military response — 700 Afghan soldiers flew to Kandahar on a moment’s notice — and the fighter aircraft dedicated by NATO suggest that keeping Arghandab clear from militants is an urgent priority.

The Afghan Defense Ministry said Wednesday that more than 36 Taliban fighters were killed in two villages in Arghandab. Two Afghan soldiers were also killed, the ministry said in a statement. Twelve other militants were killed in Maiwand, a separate district in Kandahar province.

Echoing the recent words of President Hamid Karzai, Kandahar governor Khalid warned Taliban leaders Mullah Omar and Baitullah Mehsud — the latter is Pakistan’s top Taliban commander — that their fighters will be “punished” for carrying out terrorist activities in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the Taliban announced on a Web site used by the militants that a group of suicide bombers had entered Kandahar to attack Canadian and Afghan troops and government officials, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, an organization that monitors militant Web sites.

Laity, the NATO spokesman, said officials are always alert to the threat of suicide bombs, but he said the Taliban frequently boast of many more bombers than they actually have as a scare tactic.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

AFGHANISTAN: Fatalities among Twentynine Palms Marines

A third was 19 years old and had only recently married his high-school sweetheart. And the fourth had tried to enlist in the Marines soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks but was rejected because he was only 16.

All four were part of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment, based at Twentynine Palms in the desert east of Los Angeles. They were killed June 14 by a roadside bomb in Farah province, where the battalion is assigned to shape up the Afghan security forces.

Killed were: Sgt. Michael T. Washington, 20, of Tacoma, Wash.; Lance Cpl. Layton B. Crass, 22, of Richmond, Ind.; Pfc. Dawid Pietrek, 24, of Bensenville, Ill.; and Pfc. Michael Robert Patton, 19, of Fenton, Mo.

Although often overshadowed in the media by Camp Pendleton, Twentynine Palms has been key to the U.S. efforts in Iraq and, now, Afghanistan. According to the unofficial website icasualties.org, 117 Marines from Twentynine Palms have been killed in the two conflicts (23 of the 117 are listed in The Times database for troops with hometowns in California).

Camp Pendleton, with more battalions, has had at least 335 killed (78 are listed in The Times database).

Pietrek, the Polish emigre, "had his dreams and goals and he achieved it," a family friend told the Chicago Tribune. "He always wanted to be a Marine."

Washington's father was a Marine during the Persian Gulf War, his grandfather during the Korean War. Crass' brother Devin, 19, is also a Marine stationed at Twentynine Palms.

Tony Perry, in San Diego

Photo: The casket of Marine Sgt. Michael T. Washington arrives Thursday at a funeral home in Auburn, Wash. Saluting in the doorway is his father, Michael W. Washington. Credit: Associated Press.

Ellie