12 posts tagged “u.s. marines”
Troops in
Afghanistan Kill, Detain Enemy Fighters
Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:38:00
-0500
Yesterday in Afghanistan:
Troops in Afghanistan Kill, Detain Enemy Fighters
American Forces Press
Service
WASHINGTON, July 3, 2008 - Coalition forces in Afghanistan killed several
enemy fighters and detained eight others in recent days, military officials
said.
-- Three Taliban militants
were detained in Ghazni province, where coalition forces were targeting a
Taliban militant in the area.
-- Coalition forces detained five
militants while targeting a senior Taliban leader and homemade-bomb facilitator
in Helmand province. During the search, forces discovered assault rifles and a
cache of opium. The weapons and drugs were destroyed to prevent possible
militant use.
In an operation June 30, several militants were killed
during a reconnaissance patrol by Afghan national security forces and coalition
forces in the Maywand district of Kandahar province. The militants attacked the
patrol using rockets. The militants were pursued and were later killed with
precision air strikes, officials said.
(Compiled from Combined Joint
Task Force 101 news releases.)
Related Sites:
Combined Joint Task Force 101
NATO International Security Assistance
Force
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Posted on Youtube by dvidshub
Promo for the show From The Frontline, featuring U.S. Marines
serving in the Al Anbar Province of Iraq.
Produced by Regimental Combat Team 1.
Fearless 1st Marines
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Afghan,
Coalition Forces Detain Eight Taliban Suspects in Raid
Fri, 16 May 2008 13:19:00
-0500
Afghan and coalition forces searched several compounds in the province's
Zadran district while looking for a Taliban operative with links to local
roadside bomb attacks and the movement of insurgent fighters. Some explosives
components discovered during the search were removed for disposal.
Afghan, Coalition Forces Detain Eight Taliban Suspects in Raid
American
Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, May 16, 2008 - Afghan and coalition security forces detained
eight suspected Taliban militants during a joint operation conducted in Paktia
province yesterday, U.S. military officials said.
During a search of
several compounds in the Garmser district, coalition forces fired on and killed
a militant that was deemed a threat. Thirteen people linked to terrorist
operations were detained during the operation.
(Compiled from Combined
Joint Task Force 101 news releases.)
Related Sites:
Combined Joint Task Force 101
NATO International Security Assistance
Force
A US Marine from C company 1/6 24 MEU stands under camouflage netting as he mans a position at a base in Garmser in the southern province of Helmand on May 8, 2008. Helmand, the main source of Afghanistan's opium output, is in the grip of a Taliban-insurgency launched after it was toppled from government in a US-led invasion in late 2001. Most ISAF soldiers in Helmand are British, and were joined by US Marines last week in a push to remove the Taliban from around southern Garmser district.
U.S. Marines from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit rest in a hammock they made
out of netting after an air drop of food and water near the town of
Garmser, Helmand Province, Afghanistan Sunday, May 4, 2008
U.S. Marines from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit fire on a Taliban
position near the town of Garmser, Helmand Province, Afghanistan,
Sunday, May 4, 2008.
Thank You Longislandgirl for posting a portion of this post on your blog.
When the Alpha Company’s position here in Garmsir came under RPG (rocket propelled grenade) and small arms fire, the effect was like thwacking a beehive with a baseball bat. Angry Marines boiled up in a swarm, weapons up, ready for revenge.
I mean, one Marine wondered, who’d be dumb enough to fire at a bunch of Marines … and MISS???
The attackers appeared to be two young men on a motor bike. A couple of Marines who’d been on watch, on the roof of a mud-walled farmer’s compound, had seen them a quarter mile away, riding back and forth, eyeing the Marines. One Marine said he thought one had something on his back that looked like an RPG but he couldn’t be sure.
Over the next few hours, the two men were seen several more times, but at no time could the Marines be certain these two men were the attackers.
The incident could be emblematic of this kind of war. There is likely to be very little of the video-game business of emptying an M-4 magazine into a bunch of sneering, evil terrorists. There is likely to be much of what Alpha and Bravo Companies of the 1st Battalion, 6th Marines are doing: patiently working through this Taliban stronghold, weeding out bad guys, making contract with neutral locals, ready to kill but being judicious about it.
There are two good reasons for this approach. One is that even under provocative attack, Marines are bound by the Rules of Engagement. The ROE differ by region, command and mission, but they all spring from the international laws of war. The ROE say when you can and when you cannot use deadly force.
The other reason is that the counterinsurgency campaign depends on winning the cooperation of local Afghans. Indiscriminate fire, the mistaken killing of civilians, set back this goal significantly.
So it was that Alpha did not return fire and the two young men – probably insurgents – got away.
And so it was that the only person picked up by a Marine medevac helicopter so far this week was a young Afghan boy of 10 or 11, who came into Bravo Company’s lines with a shrapnel wound in his neck.
A relative said the boy was hit by an insurgents’ rocket. The story could not be confirmed, but the boy needed surgery, and he was flown to a medical surgical hospital at Camp Bastion. At last report he was recovering well.
That’s part of this war, too. Read the rest of this post plus others here.
David Wood (photo below) is the author of this great blog.
David Wood, national security correspondent for The Sun, has reported on war and conflict from around the world since 1977. He recently won the Headliner Award for his Iraq coverage.
In this space he reports on the military and its operations with a skeptical eye, noting what he finds interesting, illuminating or outrageous, tracking events and trends and seeking out sources and resources that can put it all in context.
He's currently on assignment, embedded with the 24th Marine
Expeditionary Unit that is conducting operations in southern
Afghanistan.
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posted by Jennifer Hlad on May 2 at "From the 'Stan"
By JASON STRAZIUSO
Associated Press Writer
GARMSER, Afghanistan (AP) — Gunfire zings in near Sgt. Dan Linas’ patrol, pinning his squad down against a dirt berm. The Marines peer across the field to their left, at three mud huts and a grove of trees, searching for the muzzle flash. Then they cut loose with their M-16s.
The sun is barely up, but for the men of Bravo Company’s 2nd Platoon, the firefight proves just the first in a series of skirmishes Friday that will see Marines unleash earsplitting barrages of machine gun fire, mortars and artillery, most of which land just 600 yards away.
To the east, north and south lie bountiful fields of opium poppies, to the west an unseen enemy.
Airstrikes and artillery have thundered around this southern Afghan town all week, since several companies of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit took the offensive before dawn Tuesday and swept into Garmser, which sits in Taliban territory where no NATO troops had ventured.
The British military is responsible for Helmand Province, but its 7,500 soldiers, along with 2,500 Canadian troops in neighboring Kandahar, hasn’t been enough manpower to tame Afghanistan’s south. So the 2,400-strong 24th Marines have come to help.
The push into Garmser is their first mission since arriving from the U.S. last month, and it is the farthest south that American troops have been in several years. Most of the 33,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan operate along the border with Pakistan.
Some of the men in the 24th Marines have seen combat in the toughest parts of Iraq, and their commanders hope that experience will help calm the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. Read the whole report here.
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