British Army Maj. Gen. Patrick Carter (GB), Commander of ISAF Regional Command [RC] South and Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson (US), MEB-A Commanding General talk to a military reporter about returning Marjah back to the Afghans free of taliban influence and intimidation and the efforts of the Marines and Afghan forces during Operation Moshtarak. Video by 1st Lt. Joe Reney

The Afghan flag-raising ceremony in the Marjah District Center, Helmand province, Afghanistan, attended by the Helmand provincial governor, the Marjah district governor and numerous members of NATO-ISAF. Video by 1st Lt. Joe Reney

Col. Randall Newman talks to a military reporter about a flag raising over the city of Marjah and what it means for his Marines and the Afghanistan people in the region.

U.S. Army 2nd Lt. Jesse Underwood engages enemy forces during Operation Moshtarak in Badula Qulp, Afghanistan, Feb. 19, 2010. The International Security Assistance Force operation is an offensive mission being conducted in areas of Afghanistan prevalent in drug-trafficking and Taliban insurgency. Underwood is from Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment. (DoD photo by Tech. Sgt. Efren Lopez, U.S. Air Force)

Lance Cpl. Ryan Hogan, a rifleman with 3rd Platoon, India Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, leaps over an irrigation canal while on a patrol in Marjah, Helmand province, Afghanistan, Feb. 21, 2010. The Marines and soldiers from the Afghan National Army patrolled through a residential area of the city as part of Operation Moshtarak, a push to rid Marjah of Taliban presence and intimidation. Photo by Lance Cpl. Tommy Bellegarde

A Marine with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, walks through the bazaar in Marjeh, Afghanistan, Feb. 19. Marines with Bravo Company, 1/6, have set about securing the key community centers in the city in order to allow locals to return to their homes. Photo by Lance Cpl. James W. Clark

Marines with Alpha Company, 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion build a makeshift bridge over a canal in Helmand province, Afghanistan, Feb. 11. Alpha Company built numerous makeshift bridges, in order for Marines and vehicles to have a clear route to the Taliban stronghold Marjah. Photo by Lance Cpl. Walter Marino

Lance Cpl. Michael Murray, a fireteam leader with 3rd Platoon, India Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, gives candy to Afghan children in Marjah, Helmand province, Afghanistan, Feb. 19. The Marines and soldiers from the Afghan National Army patrolled through a residential section of the city to carry out counter-insurgency operations as part of Operation Moshtarak, a push to rid Marjah of Taliban presence and intimidation. Photo by Lance Cpl. Tommy Bellegarde

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Marines Near Marjah Hold First Meeting With Elders, Kill Taliban Attackers

A patrol of Marines and Sailors of Combined Anti-Armor Team 1 and Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, held their first impromptu meeting with village elders in the “Five Points” area Feb. 14, and only moments later came under hostile fire from Taliban attackers.

Five Points is a small farming community between the cities of Nawa and Marjah where a junction of major roads connects northern Marjah with eastern Helmand Province. Charlie Co. Marines and Afghan national army soldiers conducted a helicopter-borne assault to seize the area Feb. 9, ahead of the start of Operation Moshtarak in Marjah.

Marines had not yet had an opportunity to meet with village elders here due to daily engagements with Taliban forces during patrols in the area.

During the meeting, three elder Afghan men sat down to talk with Marines and said they were glad Marines and Afghan national security forces had come to the area.

“We are happy you’re here for our security,” said one of the men. “The Taliban come in our homes and make us feed them. We have barely enough food for our own families. We just want to live in peace.”

Marines with Alpha Company, 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion and 1st battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, take a moment to observe their surroundings after convoying construction material for their upcoming mission in Marjah. The large plastic tubing will be used by Alpha Co. to build makeshift bridges over small canals. Photo by Lance Cpl. Walter Marino

Marine Engineers Pave Historic Path Into Marjeh

Equipped with plastic hollow tubes and water from local canals, the Marines of 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion created a path for 1st Battalion 6th Marine Regiment, into the Taliban stronghold Marjeh.

It was up to 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion to build a clear route to Marjeh, and they succeeded.

The 2nd CEB brought out all their assets, including route clearance platoons, assault breacher vehicles and Alpha Company.

Alpha Co. Marines filled the canals with large, hollow, plastic tubing, providing a platform for Marines and vehicles to cross. Hallow tubes were used to allow the canal water to flow and prevent any damage to Afghan irrigation systems.

With their work done, the battalion had created a path toward the city but had not yet cleared the route of possible roadside bombs.

Marines from India Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment patrol during a sandstorm in Helmand province, Afghanistan, Feb. 8. The India Company Marines and soldiers of the Afghan national army have been battling inclement weather while living in the elements of the Helmand desert for the past two weeks. Photo by Lance Cpl. Tommy Bellegarde

Marines, Afghan Soldiers Take on Harsh Weather Conditions in Helmand Province

The troops awoke from their tarp-covered fighting holes, Feb. 10, to find a blanket of frost, covering everything around them. Their boots, flak jackets, helmets and anything else exposed to the elements served as a frozen consequence of sleeping outside in the harsh desert of Helmand, province Afghanistan during the wintertime.

Frost was only one of the many challenges to the Marines and Sailors of India Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, and soldiers of the Afghan national army, living outside without the protection of permanent structures.

Earlier in the week, a brutal hailstorm, without warning, pelted the Marines with large chunks of ice.

“I was standing on top of a hill and the hail started sprinkling a little bit,” recalled Cpl. Charles Hickey, a mortarman with India Co. “Then the wind picked up and it started hurting more. All of a sudden, instantly, marble-sized hail started coming at us at like 100 miles an hour!”

When the coalition troops entered a residential area of Marjah, Helmand province, Afghanistan, the locals cautiously came out of their homes to get a closer look. Slowly, men trickled out of their dwellings to speak to the soldiers from the Afghan National Army. When they realized that the troops meant no harm, children came outside as well.

The ANA soldiers and Marines from 3rd Platoon, India Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, patrolled this area of Marjah, Feb. 19, to conduct counterinsurgency operations in support of Operation Moshtarak.

The troops went through the neighborhood to search for members of the Taliban, weapons caches, improvised explosive devices and anything else that could potentially be used by insurgents to harm civilians or coalition forces.

Weary of the Taliban’s oppression, the locals were relieved that the troops showed up to their neighborhood. The locals quickly warmed up to the troops when the Marines gave the children candy and the on-scene corpsman provided medical care to all the residents who were feeling sick or injured.

The locals showed their gratitude by feeding the troops.

An Afghan boy stands near Marines with 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, after his father asked them for aid in treating his son's fever Feb. 17 in Marjah, Afghanistan. Photo by Lance Cpl. James W. Clark

NATO and Afghan forces have made early progress in an ongoing offensive on a Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan, but have encountered some stiff resistance and may need another 25 to 30 days to secure the entire area, a top military official said.

Overall the multinational force has reached the “end of the beginning” of the operation in central Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, said British Maj. Gen. Nick Patrick Carter, commander of NATO forces in International Security Assistance Force’s Regional Command-South, during a briefing, Feb. 18.

“I guess it will take us another 25 to 30 days to be entirely sure that we have secured that which needs to be secured,” Carter told Pentagon reporters. “And we probably won’t know for about 120 days whether or not the population is entirely convinced by the degree of commitment that their government is showing to them.”

Despite dislocating the insurgency within 24 hours of landing in the region, Feb. 13, Carter said, fighting continues in Marja, which to date has claimed the lives of six allied troops, including four Americans. Some 15,000 NATO and Afghan forces are engaged in Operation Moshtarak, which in Pashto and Dari means “Operation Together,” including 8,000 to 10,000 ground troops.

“In Marja itself, there remains stiff resistance from the insurgence,” Carter said. “And U.S. Marines in partnership with Afghan security forces are still fighting [an] intense series of actions, in the process of clearing Marja as a whole.”

Pentagon Spokesman Geoff Morrell predicted that insurgents remaining in the area were intent on seeing the fight through.

“It is not very coordinated, but there still are holdouts who have remained in Marja and elsewhere in Helmand who have stayed to fight,” he told reporters today, “and they’re clearly going to fight to the bitter end.”

Morrell added that IEDs, the military shorthand for makeshift bombs known as “improvised explosive devices,” mines and other explosives left in the wake fleeing Taliban pose a larger threat than residual enemy fighters.

In spite of the pace of operations being slowed by enemy bombs and explosives, military officials have expressed satisfaction at the rate of progress in the central Helmand operations, which represents the first test of President Barack Obama’s plan to add 30,000 more troops in the fight against Afghanistan-based insurgents.

Carter said Operation Moshtarak would likely represent the first wave in a series of operations in a push against insurgents further east towards Kandahar.

“I think, as a result of Moshtarak, is a sense of momentum that will sweep eastwards towards Kandahar during the course of the next six months,” he said. “And my sense is that … you will see the insurgent pushed eastwards in a way that will roll him out during the course of the next 12 months or so.”

In a rare glimpse at their playbook, U.S. and NATO military officials for months have remarked publicly on the strategic importance of the southern Afghanistan region and the goal to clear the area of Taliban fighters. The rationale for such a declaration of intent was to allow low-level Taliban fighters the chance to flee, and to warn civilians of the impending attack, officials said.

Marja, like other areas of Helmand, is a source of income for Taliban fighters, who cultivate poppy to yield opium and heroin for the lucrative drug market, according to reports. The U.S. State Department cites Afghanistan as the world’s largest producer of opium, and money from the drug trade is said to help in bankrolling terrorism.

DVIDS
By John J. Kruzel

Marines carry their gear out to Army helicopters prior to an air assault into Marja, Afghanistan, Feb. 13, 2010. UH-60 Black Hawk CH-47F Chinook helicopters inserted nearly 300 Marines into the objective area. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Aubree Clute

When Operation Moshtarak kicked off here Feb. 13, Army helicopter crews from the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade inserted nearly 300 Marines and Afghan security forces into Marja, Afghanistan, under cover of darkness.

UH-60 Black Hawks, CH-47F Chinooks and AH-64 Apaches from Task Force Pegasus facilitated the air assault of Kilo Company, 3/6 Marines, in seizing their objective area.

“Protected by Apache air weapons teams, the Marines and their partnered Afghan security forces quickly began moving to their initial objective, seizing key terrain and preparing to link up with their parent headquarters scheduled to begin a ground assault into Marja,” said Army Col. Paul Bricker, 82nd CAB commander.

Shortly after the Marine insertion, additional Task Force Pegasus aviation assets assisted a coalition air assault into nearby objective areas in Nad Ali. Task Force Pegasus’s 1st Attack Reconnaissance Battalion, 82nd Aviation Regiment — Task Force Wolfpack — was one of three helicopter units involved in the operation in support of the British Task Force Jaguar.

“Their air assault was equally effective in seizing key terrain in the city of Nad Ali, located adjacent and northeast of Marja,” Bricker said. “Their operation was even more complex, as it included over 20 rotary-wing aircraft from the U.S., Britain and Canada.”

Task Force Pegasus continues to provide support to operation Moshtarak, but the focus has turned from aerial security to medical evacuation. Casualty evacuation teams are standing by to transport wounded coalition and Afghan forces to appropriate field hospitals as necessary.

“[The CH-47F Chinook] has been specially configured with helicopter cabin litter support systems and manned with TF Pegasus surgeons and medics to conduct critical patient transfers from less-capable combat surgical wards within Helmand province to southern Afghanistan’s largest and most advanced hospital on Kandahar Air Base,” Bricker said.

The 82nd CAB has completed more than 120 air-assault operations throughout southern Afghanistan over the last 10 months in support of operations by the International Security Assistance Force and Afghan forces.

DoD
By Army Staff Sgt. Aubree Clute
Special to American Forces Press Service

Lance Cpls. Keith B. Lawson and Spence G. Press, scout snipers attached to Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, work together to identify targets as Taliban fighters approached from Marjeh toward their position at the 'Five Points' intersection Feb. 9. Marines of Charlie Company conducted a helicopter-borne assault earlier that morning to seize the key intersection of roads linking the northern area of the insurgent stronghold of Marjeh with the rest of Helmand province. Lawson, 25, is from Reedly, Calif., and Press, 20, is from Newbury Park, Calif. Photo by Sgt. Brian Tuthill

1st Lt. Joseph Reney (US), Spokesperson / Public Affairs Officer, briefs the media on day four of Operation Moshtarak in the city of Marjah, Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Operation Moshtarak

Video press release offered by Gov. Haji Zahir, elected district governor of Marjah. The governor addresses concerns regarding current operations in the city of Marjah and passes word directly from the president of Afghanistan that insurgents may lay down their weapons and join their government. Produced by Marine Cpl. Jennifer Calaway. Operation Moshtarak

Lindy Cameron, Head of Multi-National Provincial Reconstruction Team, talks with a CNN American Morning host about the plans to restore power to the Afghan government after the security operations are over. Operation Moshtarak. Video by Staff Sgt. Craig Rader