Operation Moshtarak Thread: Afghan flag hoisted over Marjah

[S-2]

From today's news-

Half Of Town's Taliban Flee Or Are Killed-NYT Feb.16, 2010

The taliban appear to be having some morale issues that is degrading their cohesion.

WRT to fatman's assertion, there are likely some frustrated marines from B Co. 1/6 Marines that I.D.ed 12 insurgents leaving a compound to set up an ambush. They called an airstrike on them. No go said headquarters-

"It seemed like a good target to us," Capt. Ryan Sparks, the commander of Bravo Company, which is part of the 1st Battalion of the 6th Marine Regiment, said of the strike rejected by Marine headquarters on Monday. "We didn't see any civilians around."

U.S. Curtails Airstrikes In Assault On Marja-WAPO Feb.16, 2010

Three interesting points from the WSJ-

1.) McChrystal insists that the rocket strike which killed 12 civilians on Sunday actually hit its intended target. He says a unit was taking fire from the compound. That flat-out contradicts the word of marines in a unit to which C.J. Chivers of the NYT had been embedded. They'd been taking fire from another compound and had requested artillery some considerable time earlier. So much earlier they'd presumed the mission was cancelled. Whether another unit in another direction was receiving the alleged fire is unknown but targeting a compound without certain knowledge it's devoid of civilians would appear to conflict with McChrystal's ROEs in any case. Fog of war.

2.) Taliban received a mid-level commander as reinforcement allegedly with the mission to evacuate as many fighters as possible. Many are rumored to be donning head-to-toe Burkhas to assist their escape.

3.) A local shura assigned 10 civiilians to the Marines to assist identifying IEDs-

Taliban Resist Afghan Offensive-WSJ Feb.16, 2010

That is all...

Thanks.

 

[fatman17]

Taliban allow US troops very little advancement in Marjah

MARJAH: Sniper teams attacked US Marines and Afghan troops across the Taliban haven of Marjah, as several gunbattles erupted on Monday, the third day of a major offensive to seize the extremists’ southern heartland.

Multiple firefights broke out in different neighbourhoods as US and Afghan forces worked to clear out pockets of Taliban and push slowly beyond parts of the town that they have gained control of. With gunfire coming from several directions all day long, troops managed to advance only 500 metres deeper as they fought off small squads of Taliban snipers.

“There’s still a good bit of the land still to be cleared,” said Capt Abraham Sipe, a Marine spokesman. “We’re moving at a very deliberative pace,” he added.

However, the mission faced a setback on Sunday when two US rockets slammed into a home outside Marjah, killing 12 civilians.

Six children were among the dead from the rocket strike, a NATO military official confirmed Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity. Separately, 12 Taliban fighters were killed overnight in the NATO offensive against the Taliban in Marjah, a government official said.

“There were bombardments in parts of Marjah and as a result 12 Taliban have been killed,” Dawud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the provincial governor of Helmand, told reporters.

The United States’ top military officer on Sunday said the assault on the Taliban stronghold of Marjah in Afghanistan’s Helmand province had got “off to a good start”.

“It’s actually very difficult to predict (the end),” Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters during a visit to Israel. “We have from a planning standpoint talked about a few weeks, but I don’t know that.” agencies

 

[fatman17]

US Marines under fire from Taliban ‘Aks’

By Patrick Baz

Get down, get down!” scream US Marines as Taliban bullets whistle through poppy fields and troops hit the ground on the outskirts of the southern Afghan town of Marjah.

Marines lie flat on their stomachs, others duck behind sand dunes as they try to assess where the attack is coming from in the midst of an offensive designed to clear the Taliban out of Marjah, an AFP photographer witnesses. But their counterparts from the Afghan army open fire immediately. “Cease fire, cease fire!” shouts a US lieutenant over the din, telling them through a translator they should first know at whom and what they’re shooting.

The joint US Marine-Afghan patrol were inching through poppy fields northeast of Marjah on Sunday, the day after the start of Operation Mushtarak, in which 15,000 US, NATO and Afghan troops aim to eradicate militants from the town. Their advance is slow. A sniffer dog picks its way across fields that produce most of the world’s opium, looking for improvised explosive devices (IEDs) — the primary killer of foreign and Afghan troops.

The patrol plans to make contact with local residents and with the “enemy”, says Captain Stephen Karabin, commander of Charlie company, Marines’ 1st Batallion, 3rd Regiment. The company wants Afghans to tip them off about the presence of “foreign elements” and aims to reassure them that the Marines and Afghan troops are here to stay and to ensure residents’ safety, says Karabin. Suddenly the Labrador gets excited, catching a whiff of explosives near a farm. Closer inspection reveals not a bomb, but cartridges from a Dragunov, a Russian-made sniper rifle favoured by the Taliban. Marines take up position, surrounding farms while Afghan soldiers start searching. Local men whom they question say they have seen nothing and heard nothing. “As soon as the Taliban come here we leave, it’s safer,” said one. “They are firing on you from our farms and you’re shooting back”.

Civilians have long been caught in the crossfire of a war now in its ninth year. On Sunday, 12 Afghan civilians were killed when two NATO rockets missed their target and landed on a compound in the Nad Ali district of Helmand province. Suddenly, troops spot an Afghan waving a shovel. Lieutenant Toucey sounds the alert about a suspected Taliban spotter who may have been signalling the patrol’s presence, just as a crackle of gunfire shatters the calm. “AK, AK!” shout the soldiers, referring to Kalashnikov rifle fire. “Get down, get down!”

Under Taliban fire, the Marines assemble high-calibre machine guns behind an embankment. Units radio for reinforcements. Bullets whistle in all directions. The Marines shoot back. A fighter jet drops a bomb onto the suspected location of the Taliban shooter, a deafening explosion shakes the ground and the impact sends a thick column of grey smoke into the sky. A sudden, eerie silence follows.

A little further away, a Marine points his weapon towards an irrigation canal and shouts “Stand up! hands up!” A man lying face down in the muddy water gets up and raises his hands, shivering with cold and fear. “I went to open my water pump, I heard gunshots and hid,” said the thickly bearded man dressed in traditional dress of baggy black tunic and matching trousers — speaking through a translator. Marines and Afghan soldiers search him before he is questioned by an intelligence officer and released. “It’s probably the spotter,” said a sergeant.At the same time, the radio crackles into life to announce that the enemy are pulling back. The jet returns at low altitude, dropping flares to cheers of “Happy Valentine’s Day!” from the Americans below. afp

 

[Thomas]

Marjah, Afghanistan (CNN) -- U.S. Marines fighting the Taliban in southern Afghanistan achieved a main objective Tuesday -- taking over the police headquarters in the center of the Taliban stronghold of Marjah.

CNN correspondent Atia Abawi, embedded with the Marines, said troops didn't receive any resistance when they took the station, but gun battles broke out in the area a few hours later.

There was an engagement for 15 to 20 minutes, with constant gunfire coming from different directions, and there have been "sporadic battles," Abawi said.

Unlike previous days, there was fighting in the evening, with Taliban militants trying to attack Marine locations with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades. One of the grenades hit close to one of the U.S. positions and a fire broke out.

About 15,000 Afghan and NATO forces are taking part in Operation Moshtarak, which focuses on the town of Marjah and surrounding areas in Helmand province. Set in a region known as the country's heroin capital, Marjah is where the Taliban established a shadow government.

The military says the goal of Operation Moshtarak is to provide security, governance and development, and authorities hope fighters choose to reject the insurgency and join the government's reintegration process.

Clearing out poppy fields is a key part of the push, the biggest since the Afghanistan War started in 2001. The Taliban finances its activities in part through the illegal opium trade.

One of the biggest challenges facing the NATO mission in Afghanistan is attacking the Taliban while limiting civilian casualties. On Sunday, 12 civilians died in a rocket attack by coalition troops. Three other Afghan civilians were killed by NATO in separate incidents on Sunday and Monday.

On Tuesday, Abawi spoke to one civilian whose property had been destroyed in the initial push by Marines. Despite that, he said he was happy to see Americans arrive and noted that Marines promised to pay for the damages to his home.

He said Afghans have suffered under the Taliban, who he said had beheaded some people and forced their way into people's homes for food.

 

[Thomas]

MARJAH, Afghanistan — It is hard to know whether Monday was a very bad day or a very good day for Lance Cpl. Andrew Koenig.

On the one hand, he was shot in the head. On the other, the bullet bounced off him.

In one of those rare battlefield miracles, an insurgent sniper hit Lance Cpl. Koenig dead on in the front of his helmet, and he walked away from it with a smile on his face.

"I don't think I could be any luckier than this," Lance Cpl. Koenig said two hours after the shooting.

Lance Cpl. Koenig's brush with death came during a day of intense fighting for the Marines of Company B, 1st Battalion, 6th Regiment.

The company had landed by helicopter in the predawn dark on Saturday, launching a major coalition offensive to take Marjah from the Taliban.

The Marines set up an outpost in a former drug lab and roadside-bomb factory and soon found themselves under near-constant attack.

Lance Cpl. Koenig, a lanky 21-year-old with jug-handle ears and a burr of sandy hair, is a designated marksman. His job is to hit the elusive Taliban fighters hiding in the tightly packed neighborhood near the base.

The insurgent sniper hit him first. The Casper, Wyo., native was kneeling on the roof of the one-story outpost, looking for targets.

He was reaching back to his left for his rifle when the sniper's round slammed into his helmet.

The impact knocked him onto his back.

"I'm hit," he yelled to his buddy, Lance Cpl. Scott Gabrian, a 21-year-old from St. Louis.

Lance Cpl. Gabrian belly-crawled along the rooftop to his friend's side. He patted Lance Cpl. Koenig's body, looking for wounds.

Click here for more on this story from the Wall Street Journal.

Then he noticed that the plate that usually secures night-vision goggles to the front of Lance Cpl. Koenig's helmet was missing. In its place was a thumb-deep dent in the hard Kevlar shell.

Lance Cpl. Gabrian slid his hands under his friend's helmet, looking for an entry wound. "You're not bleeding," he assured Lance Cpl. Koenig. "You're going to be OK."

Lance Cpl. Koenig climbed down the metal ladder and walked to the company aid station to see the Navy corpsman.

The only injury: A small, numb red welt on his forehead, just above his right eye.

He had spent 15 minutes with Doc, as the Marines call the medics, when an insurgent's rocket-propelled grenade exploded on the rooftop, next to Lance Cpl. Gabrian.

The shock wave left him with a concussion and hearing loss.

He joined Lance Cpl. Koenig at the aid station, where the two friends embraced, their eyes welling.

The men had served together in Afghanistan in 2008, and Lance Cpl. Koenig had survived two blasts from roadside bombs.

"We've got each other's backs," Lance Cpl. Gabrian said, the explosion still ringing in his ears.

Word of Lance Cpl. Koenig's close call spread quickly through the outpost, as he emerged from the shock of the experience and walked through the outpost with a Cheshire cat grin.

"He's alive for a reason," Tim Coderre, a North Carolina narcotics detective working with the Marines as a consultant, told one of the men. "From a spiritual point of view, that doesn't happen by accident."

Gunnery Sgt. Kevin Shelton, whose job is to keep the Marines stocked with food, water and gear, teased the lance corporal for failing to take care of his helmet.

"I need that damaged-gear statement tonight," Gunnery Sgt. Shelton told Lance Cpl. Koenig. It was understood, however, that Lance Cpl. Koenig would be allowed to keep the helmet as a souvenir.

Gunnery Sgt. Shelton, a 36-year-old veteran from Nashville, said he had never seen a Marine survive a direct shot to the head.

But next to him was Cpl. Christopher Ahrens, who quietly mentioned that two bullets had grazed his helmet the day the Marines attacked Marjah. The same thing, he said, happened to him three times in firefights in Iraq.

Cpl. Ahrens, 26, from Havre de Grace, Md., lifted the camouflaged cloth cover on his helmet, exposing the holes where the bullets had entered and exited.

He turned it over to display the picture card tucked inside, depicting Michael the Archangel stamping on Lucifer's head. "I don't need luck," he said.

After his moment with Lance Cpl. Gabrian, Lance Cpl. Koenig put his dented helmet back on his head and climbed the metal ladder to resume his rooftop duty within an hour of being hit.

"I know any one of these guys would do the same," he explained. "If they could keep going, they would."

 

[fatman17]

US Marines link up with units in Marjah

* Taliban spokesman claims militants retain control, coalition forces under siege
* NATO says service member killed in roadside blast in Marjah

MARJAH: US Marines, moving by land from the north, on Tuesday linked up with US and Afghan units that have faced nearly constant Taliban attack in the four days since they were dropped by helicopter into this
insurgent stronghold
in southern Afghanistan.

Also on Tuesday, US artillery fired non-lethal smoke rounds to disperse Taliban fighters in Marjah - the first time cannons have been used in the fight to drive the militants from their logistical and opium poppy-smuggling base. Commanders refused a Marine request to fire deadly high-explosive rounds because the unit on the ground could not be sure if civilians were at risk.

The linkup between the two US Marine rifle companies and their Afghan army partners would enable the US to expand its control in Marjah, situated in Helmand province 610 kilometres southwest of Kabul.

The Lima Company of the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines moved through fields of hidden bombs and booby traps, and braved heavy sniper fire to join up with the same battalion’s Kilo Company, which was airdropped into the town in the first hours of the operation on Saturday.

Lt Gordon Emmanuel, a platoon commander in Kilo Company, said the Marines landed without encountering Taliban fire but came under sustained attack as they fanned out from the landing zone.

“When it is daytime, there is non-stop contact until the sun goes down ... every day,” Emmanuel said.

Marines under siege: A Taliban spokesman, however, claimed that insurgents retain control of the town and that coalition forces – who “descended from helicopters in limited areas of Marjah” –were now “under siege.”

Taliban spokesman Tariq Ghazniwal extended an invitation by e-mail to foreign journalists to visit Marjah, saying the trip would “show who has the upper hand in the area”.

About 15,000 NATO and Afghan troops are taking part in the big offensive around Marjah, which has an estimated 80,000 inhabitants and was the largest southern town under Taliban control. NATO hopes to rush in aid and public services as soon as the town is secured to try to win the loyalty of the population.

Roadside bomb: Separately, NATO said a roadside bomb killed a service member taking part in the Marjah operation on Tuesday - the third confirmed death among international forces since the attack on the town began. An American and a Briton were also killed on Saturday.

NATO did not identify the latest victim by nationality.

Meanwhile, US officials said that Taliban resistance in Marjah seemed more disorganised than in previous days, when small teams of insurgents swarmed around Marine and Afghan army positions firing rifles, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. ap

 

[fawwaxs]

 

[fawwaxs]

 

[fawwaxs]

Analysis: Afghan offensive tests Obama's war plan

WASHINGTON — Even more than the combat under way in strategic Helmand province, what comes after this first major battle of President Barack Obama's Afghanistan surge will test his strategy to blunt the Taliban and begin to withdraw U.S. forces next year.

There are questions about whether meaningful numbers of Taliban fighters can be scared off by U.S. firepower or bought off in a future amnesty outreach. U.S. Marines are meeting stubborn resistance and slower going than some expected in the early days of the offensive around the rich farming district of Marjah, although it is too soon to say whether the Taliban intend to mount a prolonged battle.

Ambitious plans to install a responsible local government once the fighting stops raise questions about how long the Americans intend to stay. On its face, the campaign to make Marjah independent and strong enough to resist the Taliban commits the United States and other countries to a lengthy stay in a bad neighborhood.

Obama has promised to begin bringing U.S. forces home in July of next year. He has set no deadline for ending the war outright, but military analysts assume U.S. forces will have to remain in volatile southern Afghanistan far beyond that initial drawdown.

A longtime hotbed of Taliban activity, Marjah is likely to be dominated by thousands of U.S. and Afghan forces in the short term. The U.S. military plans to remain for as long as it takes to make sure the Taliban cannot return, and commanders have set no deadlines either for the duration of the fighting or the duration of the holding operation that will follow.

Experts say that the next couple of months should reveal whether the operation worked.

"The center of gravity is the Afghan people," said Richard "Ozzie" Nelson, a former White House counterterrorism expert now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"The Afghan government has to maintain security and operate on its own," Nelson said. "But the Afghan people have to accept the government" and reject the Taliban.

In a bid to try to win over the local population, U.S. officials waited to launch Saturday's operation until they had explicit permission from the Afghan government and were able to storm the town with significant numbers of Afghan forces. About 15,000 NATO and Afghan troops are taking part in the big offensive around Marjah.

Military officials say they are learning from past mistakes. The offensive is designed with an "Afghan face," meaning more and better trained Afghan soldiers and a reserve of some 2,000 trained Afghan police slated to take the lead in policing the town after shooting subsides.

Economic development will quickly follow, with military and civilian workers striving to "show a better way of life" to the town's inhabitants, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday.

Gibbs said the operation "demonstrates the security forces of Afghanistan in the lead, working with others as partners to make progress against the Taliban."

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, says he is ready to unwrap an Afghan "government in a box" to take over in Marjah after the Taliban are expelled as a fighting force. Police, courts and local services are at the top of the to-do list.

It's all part of the counterinsurgency theory Obama has adopted that says if people feel safe and fairly treated, they will reject the insurgents who oppress them while also providing services the ostensibly legitimate government cannot.

Implicit in the Marjah strategy is the assumption that the Taliban cannot be defeated in a military sense, only marginalized and hollowed out. It also depends on a steady flow on international aid and development expertise that has been promised but over which the Obama administration does not hold full control.

For McChrystal, Obama's hand-picked commander, the Marjah offensive is the first large operation planned and run under his command and with his changes to military rules of engagement and mindset in place. For example, he has forbidden certain kinds of assaults on occupied dwellings that would make the Marjah offensive easier in the short run but raise the likelihood of civilian casualties and thus the likelihood of losing the support of the local population.

"What's important about this operation is that it is the first major operation in which we will demonstrate, I think successfully, that the new elements of the strategy" will work, White House national security adviser James Jones said on "Fox News Sunday." Jones, a retired Marine general, listed economic reform and good local governance in the same breath with the security bought with military might.

"That's where I get really skeptical," said Georgetown University professor C. Christine Fair, a former U.N. official in Afghanistan.

"I don't know where they found 2,000 Afghan police who are competent" to lead security for such a large and strategic place, Fair said, and she doubts the U.S. assertion that most Taliban foot soldiers are motivated by money or expediency instead of ideology.

"Where is the data coming from to support that optimism?" she asked.

A Taliban spokesman claimed Tuesday that insurgents retain control of the town and that coalition forces who "descended from helicopters in limited areas of Marjah" were now under siege.

Spokesman Tariq Ghazniwal extended an invitation by e-mail to foreign journalists to visit Marjah, saying the trip would "show who have the upper hand in the area."

EDITOR'S NOTE _ Anne Gearan has covered national security affairs for The Associated Press since 2004. Anne Flaherty has covered military affairs for the AP since 2006
The Associated Press: Analysis: Afghan offensive tests Obama's war plan

 

[fawwaxs]

U.S. Marines from 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment move on a compound in the early morning in Marjah in Afghanistan's Helmand province on Tuesday Feb. 16, 2010. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

 

[S-2]

C.J. Chivers, embedded with the marine company closest to the incident, writes on what he knows of the errant rocket strike which killed 12 civilians on Sunday here-

Marines in Afghan Assault Grapple With Civilian Deaths - NYT Feb. 16, 2010

Rajiv Chandrasekaran reports on efforts of B Co. 1/6 Marines inside Marjah's Koru Chreh bazaar area to secure the area. The found eight mortar rounds newly daisy-chained inside the market-

U.S., Afghan Forces Work To Secure Key Areas Inside Marjah-WAPO Feb.17, 2010

Here's more on the same effort by 1/6 Marines inside Marjah as reported by Michael Phillips of the WSJ-

Site of Marjah Government Offices Seized - WSJ Feb. 17, 2010

Thanks.

 

[Thomas]

BBC News - Afghanistan Taliban 'using human shields' - general

Taliban militants are increasingly using civilians as "human shields" as they battle against a joint Afghan-Nato offensive, an Afghan general has said.

Gen Mohiudin Ghori said his soldiers had seen Taliban fighters placing women and children on the roofs of buildings and firing from behind them.

The joint offensive in southern Helmand province has entered its fifth day.

US Marines fighting to take the Taliban haven of Marjah have had to call in air support as they come under heavy fire.

They have faced sustained machine-gun fire from fighters hiding in bunkers and in buildings including homes and mosques.


They are trying to get us to fire on them and kill the civilians
Gen Moheedin Ghori
Afghan National Army

Gen Ghori, the senior commander for Afghan troops in the area, accused the Taliban of taking civilians hostage in Marjah and putting them in the line of fire.

"Especially in the south of Marjah, the enemy is fighting from compounds where soldiers can very clearly see women or children on the roof or in a second-floor or third-floor window," he is quoted by Associated Press as saying.

"They are trying to get us to fire on them and kill the civilians."

As a result, his forces were having to make the choice either not to return fire, he said, or to advance much more slowly in order to distinguish militants from civilians.

Nato has stressed that the safety of civilians in the areas targeted in the joint Nato and Afghan Operation Moshtarak is its highest priority.
Civilians outside Marjah watch a US military patrol, 16 Feb
Nato has said that safeguarding civilians is its top priority

Journalist Jawad Dawari, based in Lashkar Gah, told BBC Pashto that Taliban fighters remained in many residential areas of Marjah and were defending their positions with heavy weapons.

"It is difficult for the Afghan army and Nato to storm Taliban-held areas because to do so may inflict heavy civilian casualties and there are still a lot of civilians in Marjah.

"Whenever they launch an attack, the Taliban take refuge in civilians' homes."

He had spoken to many local people in Marjah, he said, and they had all said the Nato offensive had made little progress since the first day.

An Afghan military official had told reporters that the backbone of the resistance came from foreign fighters - Pakistani and Arab - and that it was feared they might resort to suicide attacks, he added.

Improvised bombs

As well as meeting pockets of stiff resistance, the troops taking part in the offensive have been having to deal with large numbers of improvised bombs, the BBC's Frank Gardner in Kandahar says.


Himars rocket system

Day-by-day report and map
Civilians die in Kandahar strike

American forces have found a so-called "daisy chain" - a long bomb rigged up from mortar bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and a motorbike, our correspondent says.

And British engineers have deployed a device called a "python" - a length of explosives designed to set off mines and clear a safe path through them, he says.

Afghan army chief of staff Besmillah Khan told the AFP news agency the threat from improvised bombs meant gains were coming "slowly".

Meanwhile, to the north, British forces have discovered an insurgent cache of stolen Afghan army and police uniforms.

The find suggests the Taliban could have been planning attacks disguised as Afghan security personnel, our correspondent says.

Nato says discussions with the local population on how to bring lasting security to the area are continuing, our correspondent adds.

British and Afghan troops are reported to be advancing more swiftly in the nearby district of Nad Ali than are their US and Afghan counterparts in Marjah.

Missiles 'on target'

The commander of British forces in southern Afghanistan said on Tuesday a missile that struck a house outside Marjah on Sunday killing 12 people, including six children, had hit its intended target.

Maj Gen Nick Carter said the rocket had not malfunctioned and the US system responsible for firing it was back in use. Officials say three Taliban, as well as civilians, were in the house.

Initial Nato reports said the missile had landed about 300m (984ft) off its intended target. Gen Carter blamed these "conflicting" reports on "the fog of war".

He said that protecting the local population remained at the heart of the operation.

Speaking on Tuesday, Dawud Ahmadi - a spokesman for Helmand Governor Gulab Mangal - said the Afghan National Army and Nato forces were clearing areas around Marjah of mines.

Mr Ahmadi said that 1,240 families had been displaced and evacuated from Marjah - and all had received aid in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.

Operation Moshtarak, meaning "together" in the Dari language, is the biggest coalition attack since the Taliban fell in 2001.

Allied officials have reported only two coalition deaths so far - one American and one Briton killed on Saturday.

 

[S-2]

The NYT report above yours from the BBC highlights that the report of three taliban among the civilians killed hasn't been confirmed and that the report was from the Afghan Ministry Of Defense. C.J. Chivers of the NYT was with the unit of marines who witnessed the rocket strike and they immediately rushed (under fire) to the scene, applied first-aid and requested a medevac (initially driven off by ground fire although marked with a red-cross) but couldn't save a woman badly wounded. No weapons have been as yet recovered from the scene so this story isn't done.

The fact that the HIMARS hadn't malfunctioned indicates a target location error or that the taliban in the house managed to flee before the ordnance arrived.

The human shield issue should be anticipated. It's been clear for some time that most of the local community couldn't evacuate the area. Maybe by taliban intent.

Thanks.

 

[Spring Onion]

Afghan army raises flag on embattled Taliban town

By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU and RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Writers Alfred De Montesquiou And Rahim Faiez, Associated Press Writers – 25 mins ago
MARJAH, Afghanistan – Military commanders raised the Afghan flag in the bullet-ridden main market of the Taliban's southern stronghold of Marjah on Wednesday as firefights continued to break out elsewhere in town between holed-up Taliban and U.S. and Afghan troops.

About 15,000 NATO and Afghan troops are taking part in the offensive around Marjah, a town of about 80,000 people that was the largest population center in southern Helmand province under Taliban control. NATO hopes to rush in aid and public services as soon as the town is secured to try to win the loyalty of the population.

With the assault in its fifth day, an Afghan army soldier climbed to the roof of an abandoned shop and raised a large bamboo pole with Afghanistan's official green-and-red flag. A crowd including the provincial governor, a few hundred Marine and Afghan troops and handfuls of civilians — Afghan men in turbans and traditional loose tunics who were searched for weapons as they entered the bazaar — watched from below.

The market was calm during the ceremony and Marines there said they are in control of the neighborhood.

But the detritus of fighting was everywhere. The back of the building over which the flag waved had been blown away. Shops were riddled with bullet holes. Grocery stores and fruit stalls had been left standing open, hastily deserted by their owners. White metal fences marked off areas that had not yet been cleared of bombs.

Afghan soldiers said they were guarding the shops to prevent looting and hoped the proprietors would soon feel safe enough to return.

The Marines and Afghan troops "saw sustained but less frequent insurgent activity" in Marjah on Wednesday, limited mostly to small-scale attacks, NATO said in a statement.

Marine officials have said that Taliban resistance has started to seem more disorganized than in the first few days of the assault, when small teams of insurgents swarmed around Marine and Afghan army positions firing rifles, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

The offensive in Marjah — about 380 miles (610 kilometers) southwest of Kabul — is the biggest assault since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan and a major test of a retooled NATO strategy to focus on protecting civilians, rather than killing insurgents.

Even with caution on both the NATO and Afghan side, civilians have been killed. NATO has confirmed 15 civilian deaths in the operation. Afghan rights groups say at least 19 have been killed.

Insurgents are increasingly using civilians as human shields — firing at Afghan troops from inside or next to compounds where women and children appear to have been ordered to stand on a roof or in a window, said Gen. Mohiudin Ghori, the brigade commander for Afghan troops in Marjah.

"Especially in the south of Marjah, the enemy is fighting from compounds where soldiers can very clearly see women or children on the roof or in a second-floor or third-floor window," Ghori said. "They are trying to get us to fire on them and kill the civilians."

Ghori said troops have made choices either not to fire at the insurgents with civilians nearby or they have had to target and advance much more slowly in order to distinguish between militants and civilians as they go.

One Afghan soldier said that he has seen many civilians wounded as they were caught in the crossfire.

"I myself saw lots of people that were shot, and they were ordinary people," said Esmatullah, who did not give his rank and like many Afghans goes by one name. He said some were hit by Taliban bullets and some by Marine or Army troops.

Taliban "were firing at us from people's homes. So in returning fire, people got shot," he said.

In northern Marjah, U.S. Marines fanned out through poppy fields, dirt roads and side alleys to take control of a broader stretch of area from insurgents as machine gun fire rattled in the distance.

The Marines found several compounds that had primitive drawings on their walls depicting insurgents blowing up tanks or helicopters, a sign that Afghan troops say revealed strong Taliban support in the neighborhood.

Lt. Col. Brian Christmas, commander of 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, said security has improved enough in the north of town for Afghan police to step in. Other Marine units have taken control of main locations in the center of town.

"Bringing in the Afghan police frees up my forces to clear more insurgent zones," Christmas said.

Combat engineers were building a fortified base at the entrance of town for the police, who are expected to arrive Thursday.

Afghan police chosen for the task in Marjah were selected from other regions of the country instead of Helmand province, Marine officials said, in order to avoid handing over day-to-day security to officers who may have tribal or friendship ties to the Taliban.

Four NATO service members have been killed in the Marjah operation. An American and a Briton were killed on Saturday, while two others whose nationalities were not identified were killed Tuesday. One Afghan soldier has also been killed.

About 40 insurgents have been killed, Helmand Gov. Gulab Mangal told reporters in Lashkar Gah, the nearby provincial capital, after the flag-raising.

Troops are encountering less fire from mortars and RPGs than at the start of the assault, suggesting that the insurgents may have depleted some of their reserves or that the heavier weapons have been hit, Ghori said.

Nevertheless, Taliban have not given up. Insurgent snipers hiding in haystacks in poppy fields have exchanged fire with Marines and Afghan troops in recent days as they swept south.

A Marine spokesman said the zone appeared quieter Wednesday than on previous days, but was likely to flare up again.

"This thing is going to have peaks where we establish ourselves, and then they're going to make the next push into the city," Capt. Abraham Sipe said.

NATO said it has reinstated use of a high-tech rocket system that it suspended after two rockets hit a house on the outskirts of Marjah on Sunday, killing 12 people, including at least five children.

The military coalition originally said the missiles went hundreds of yards (meters) off target but said Tuesday that it determined that the rockets hit the intended target.

Afghan officials said three Taliban fighters were in the house at the time.

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Associated Press writer Rahim Faiez reported from Helmand province.

 

[TruthSeeker]

Taliban commander, 4 al Qaeda fighters killed in raid near Marja

By Bill Roggio, LWJ, February 16, 2010 7:13 PM

Afghan and Coalition special operations forces killed a Taliban commander who works with foreign fighters and 10 Taliban and al Qaeda operatives during a raid in a region just outside the battle zone in Marja in Helmand province.

During a raid in the district of Washir, the combined force targeted and killed Mullah Sarajudin, the Taliban commander, along with four al Qaeda operatives and six Taliban fighters. Washir lies just north of the district of Nad Ali, where Afghan and Coalition forces have launched a massive operation to take control of the city of Marja and the surrounding areas.

"Troops late Monday night targeted a hideout out of Taliban rebels in Washir district, killing Mullah Sarajudin along with four Arab militants," a spokesman for Helmand province told Xinhuan News.

Sarajudin, who is also known as Mullah Hukmat, "was involved in organizing anti-government activities and arranged contact between Taliban and Arab fighters," Xinhuan News reported. He was a district-level Taliban commander in nearby Farah province during Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001, according to Quqnoos.

The International Security Assistance Force press office confirmed the raid, and said more than 10 fighters were killed during a series of running battles as the Taliban and al Qaeda fighters attempted to leave the area.

The district of Washir is one of three in Helmand that are currently under Taliban control, Mohammed Gulab Mangal, the Governor of Helmand province said in a press conference. The northern district of Bughrun and the southern district of Deshu are also considered to be outside government control.

The Taliban are expected to flee to Washir, and to neighboring Farah and Nimroz provinces, where Afghan and Coalition forces are thin, US military and intelligence officials told The Long War Journal at the outset of the operation in Marja. Just days prior to the operation, Afghan and Coalition forces established blocking positions to the north, south, and west of Marja in an attempt to fix and kill any Taliban fighters fleeing the fight.

The Taliban may also flee north to Bughrun and south to the Taliban-controlled border town of Baramcha in Desho. Once in Baramcha, the Taliban can easily cross into Pakistan's province of Baluchistan, a known Taliban haven.

Read more: Taliban commander, 4 al Qaeda fighters killed in raid near Marja - The Long War Journal