F-16 Engines Damaged by Volcanic Ash: NATO Finds Damage to F-16s from Ash Cloud

An unnamed diplomat says several NATO F-16s have engine damage from flying through the Iceland volcano ash cloud. "Glasslike" particles were found inside the jet engines after a mission to patrol European airspace.

Iceland Volcanic Ash Cloud

Volcanic ash tends to stick to a jet engine's interior parts, such as the turbines, where it melts to form a glassy coating. This restricts air flow and heats up the engine, leading to engine failure.

There was no word on when the damage was done to the F-16s, whether in the earlier days of the eruption of The Eyjafjallajokull or more recently. Lufthansa reports that their test flights had no damage to their aircraft. Some flights will resume service over Europe tomorrow.

Moshtarak Update: Three Months to Complete Marjah Mission

The fighting continues in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, as U.S. Marines and Nato forces try to move Taliban out of the village Marjah.

Operating Moshtarak

Six Nato soldiers died on Thursday, February 18th, along with one on Friday. Nato-led troop deaths now total twelve. A British commander in Marjah, Nick Carter, said "stiff resistance" remains from insurgents. "It will be some days before we can be completely confident that Marjah is secure."

Maj-Gen Carter said it could take another three months to determine how successful the operation had been.

The clean-up of Marjah, using a force of Afghan military, is the start of an offensive to provide secure population centers in Southern Afghanistan, but as suspected, Taliban have hidden in compounds where troops can see women and children on the rooftops in or in second or third floor windows, providing human shields and preventing Nato air strikes.

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."

Operation Moshtarak has focused on Marjah, located about 360 miles southwest of Kabul, because agricultural opportunities are fertile there, and the hope is that with financial aid, farmers can be turned away from their poppy crops, to crops that provide not only a living, but security without Taliban interference.

Plans call for NATO to rush in a civilian administration, restore public services and pour in aid to try to win the loyalty of the population in preventing the Taliban from returning.

Norm Hooben noted that a CBS embedded reporter spilled the fact that an elite team of Marines were dispatched "behind Taliban lines...on Friday," and a Marine officer spoke "on condition of anonymity because of security concerns," confirmed the mission. As Hooben pointed out, if there are security concerns, why is anyone talking?

U.S. Marine Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson says Marines have taken control of main roads, bridges, markets and government centers in Marjah:<

I'd say we control the spine" of the town, Nicholson said as he inspected the Marines' front line in the north of the dusty, mud-brick town. "We're where we want to be.

Nicholson said they are taking fire from Taliban sharp-shooters, who they believe are not from the Marjah area, but some calm is beginning to come to the area. Against the advice of U.S. Marines, some residents returned to their homes, some markets opened in the open-air bazaar in the north end of Marjah, and some people ventured out to stock their pantries for the first time in a week, and Nato forces still face difficult challenges with the people:

"We couldn't do anything when one of them was forcing his way into our house. What could we do?" said Sayed Wakhan, a sunburned, middle-aged opium poppy farmer in northern Marjah.

But Wakhan, who spoke to reporters as he mixed mud to make repairs on his house, also said he didn't trust the government forces who now occupy his neighborhood. 

"I have suffered at the hands of police, and I don't like the international forces coming into our area," he snapped. His remarks were a reminder of the tough job ahead for NATO and Afghan authorities in winning over locals used to an uneasy peace under the Taliban.

War on Terror News has updates on Marjah resident's gratitude for Operation Moshtarak. Holger Awakens has good commentary on Marjah.

Moshtarak Taliban: Moshtarak Taiban Half are Dead or Gone: Marja Elders Help NATO Forces

Operation Moshtarak still continues slowly according to all reports out of Afghanistan's Helmand Province, with half of the Taliban either dead or gone. See video below.

 

Marines - Helmand Province

According to the NYT-Asia Pacific, on the third day of Moshtarak, Taliban fighters in the area have dropped by about half. At one time, it was thought as many as 1,000 Taliban might be in the village of Marja at the start of the Operation last Saturday, but today's estimate is 400, with about one-fourth of them now dead and one-fourth fleeing the area - to unknown parts.

Among the Taliban fighters still in Marja, American and Afghan officials said, morale appears to be eroding fast, in part because the holdouts feel abandoned by their leaders and by local Afghans who are refusing to shelter them.

“They cannot feed themselves, they cannot sustain themselves — that is what we are hearing,” Col. Scott Hartsell told a group of senior officers at a briefing near Marja that included Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of NATO forces; and Abdul Rahim Wardak, the Afghan minister of defense. “They are calling for help, and they are not getting any.”

Commanders believe the combat phase of the Operation will wind-up with three or four days.

It has been obvious since word of the coming Operation was purposefully leaked, that many in Marja welcomed the NATO forces, but they also feared for their lives at the hands of the Taliban:

A Marja tribal elder, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that a local shura — or council — had assigned 10 local Afghans to assist American and Afghan military units.

“They are here to help us, and it’s our duty to help them,” a tribal elder said in a telephone interview, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “They might kill me for telling you this.”

A missile strike recently, inside Marja, killed eleven civilians. There is confusion about the strike as Military struggles to figure out what happened. First, American military said the rocket was designated for the house next the one actually hit. Yesterday, military sources said the rocket hit the house it was supposed to hit, but they were unaware that civilians were inside. The Marines on the ground, however, say they were "startled" by the missile strike, which a Company Commander requested earlier in the day, but permission was denied.

In the photo above, you can see the difficult terrain in Helmand Province. The series of canals and bridges were originally built by the U.S. military in the hopes of bringing agriculture to the area, which can also support livestock, fishing, forestry and horticulture. Instead, Afghans chose to grow poppies - from which 90% of the world's opium, used to make heroin is harvested, and provides 60% of Afghanistan's economy. An Afghan farmer, growing products to make cereals, makes only a pittance compared to a crop of poppies.

Here is a look from July 2009, at what it is like when the U.S. Marines show up in the Helmand - this time in the village of Nawa:

Before a battalion of U.S. Marines swooped into this dusty farming community along the Helmand River in early July, almost every stall in the bazaar had been padlocked, as had the school and the health clinic. Thousands of residents had fled. Government officials and municipal services were nonexistent. Taliban fighters swaggered about with impunity, setting up checkpoints and seeding the roads with bombs.

In the three months since the Marines arrived, the school has reopened, the district governor is on the job and the market is bustling. The insurgents have demonstrated far less resistance than U.S. commanders expected. Many of the residents who left are returning home, their possessions piled onto rickety trailers, and the Marines deem the central part of the town so secure that they routinely walk around without body armor and helmets.

"Nawa has returned from the dead," said the district administrator, Mohammed Khan.

 The article on the Marines coming to Nawa in July 2009 is here. It is a very good read.


Photo Credit: DOD US Army Photographer Staff Sgt. Gary A. Witte



U.S. Marines Enter Marja (video)

Op Moshtarak Largest Minefield Nato has Ever Seen: Doctrine of Courageous Restraint

Marine commanders say the area covered by Operation Moshtarak is the largest minefield Nato has ever seen. Today that minefield claimed it's first victim.

 

Afghan Soldier fires at Tliban insurgents

 There is breaking news this moment that two Nato troops have died along with one British soldier. One death was due to an IED, and at least one death due to small-arms fire. The Brit has been identified as LanceCpl. Darren Hicks. Hicks was married with a three year old son and a 10-month-old daughter. An Afghan commander said 20 insurgents were killed in the early hours of Moshtarak.

Troops will not hurry through the heavily-mined territory. The Helmand Province Governor, Gulab Mangal, says the Operation may take a month to complete.

Many insurgents are expected to blend in with the citizenry, perhaps conducting their own guerilla warfare against the Nato forces.

More reports are out, of Taliban refusing to let villagers leave before the assault began.

Taliban are preventing people from leaving because they can hide themselves behind people. The Taliban also know the foreigners will not attack or not drop bombs. They are also taking food from the people."

Governor Mangal said: "People were taken as hostages prior to our arrival. In the areas we now have under control, they are free to come and go."

Coalition forces have promised 34 local elders that Afghans, only, will search Afghans. Apparently these 34 will do the searching of specific "compounds." God help our Marines. What if one these elders has a son in the Taliban? My questions go on and on, but I have to believe the finest military on the face of this earth, knows what it is doing.

Update 2-13-10 2:30 CDT:

FOXNews' Rick Folbaum has just said one American has died in Moshtarak. No other verification available.

3:00 PM CDT: Gregg Jarrett, FOX News has confirmed that an American has died by small-arms fire. In this same report, they are saying 15 Brits were killed. Unconfirmed. Perhaps this is wrong.

Source: Ireland Online

Photo credit: U.S. Marine Sgt. Brian Tuthill

Taliban Prevents Marjah Families from Leaving ahead of Operation Moshtarak

A coalition of international forces in Afghanistan has announced the coming of Operation Moshtarak before it has even begun. The announcement was designed to get families out of the town of Marjah until the town can be secured, and the Taliban ejected. The Taliban, however, has their own plan and they do not include letting the citizens of Marjah to flee to safety.

 

US Marines - Helmand Province

Operation Moshtarak will utilize an "overwhelming force," and is considered the biggest battle of the 8 year old war in Afghanistan. Troops have been moving into position for several weeks.

Pentagon officials say this unusually public "shaping" of the battlefield has one key goal: while hundreds of hard-core Taliban are hunkering down for a fight, many more, along with thousands of residents, have fled Marja until the dust settles. That should limit civilian casualties and, they hope, lure some lukewarm Taliban over to the government side.

"We're not interested in how many Taliban we kill," Army General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S., commander in Afghanistan, said Thursday. "We'd much rather have them see the inevitability that things are changing and just accept that."

I don't know. Maybe I'm looking at this wrong, but why wouldn't we want to kill the bastards who have no regard for their own people. For every Taliban left, there is one more to hunt our soldiers. Complete victory is the only answer. But then, what do I know.

U.S. and Afghan officials know that die-hard Taliban forces have been burying hundreds of improvised explosive devices around the town in recent weeks. "It's giving time and space to those who want to fight to dig in," says Ali Jalali, who served as Afghanistan's first post-Taliban Interior Minister and now works with the Pentagon's National Defense University in Washington.

"It could be very bloody, and that could affect public opinion in Europe and the U.S."

Yeah, well...let's kill the bastards.

The city of Marjah, is a large poppy producing community, considered a "den for narcotics traffickers and insurgents," and is the first major target to clear.  "Hundreds" or "thousands are said to have run to safety in the town of 80,000 before the Taliban crackdown. Officials believe Marja will be a turning point in the war.

The offensive, when it begins in earnest, will largely be conducted on foot. That's because the terrain surrounding Marja is latticed with canals built by the U.S. a generation ago to expand agriculture to 250,000 acres in the Helmand River valley. It also gave the region the nickname "Little America." The canals and ditches created a network of bridges unable to support armored vehicles and gives the Taliban good places to hide IEDs - the top killer of U.S. troops in Afghanistan - and snipers. They also turned the region into lush farmland that has proven ideal for growing opium-producing poppies. 

Afghan soldiers will be a frontline force, along with US Marines. General Stanley McChrystal says the Afghan forces "all have Marine haircuts right now."

Read more details of Operation Moshtarak in Helmand Province here, and keep our soldiers in your prayers as this critical offensive gets underway.

Photo credit: US Marine Corps, Sgt. Pete Thibodeau

NATO and Islam in Afghanistan

We've heard this morning that NATO will send an additional 5,000 troops to Afghanistan to serve as, and train, police there. According to NATO, this deployment is specifically to "support the upcoming elections in Afghanistan." Can Islam influence NATO, in anyway? That's a question I would not have thought to ask. Can NATO and Islam exist successfully in the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda?

NATO

Amerisrael says today, that "Islamists can now veto any action by NATO. This can be accomplished by one member country, like maybe...Turkey, agreeing to "carry out the collective will voiced by the "Dar al Islam," which has already happened. We have a similar problem at the United Nations. Amerisrael asks: Will NATO take preemptive military action to destroy the Iranian nuke sites? No...there would first have to be a "consensus" of all NATO member countries. We can think of many situations, with this needed-consensus, that can affect NATO actions in a negative way, and especially in matters of Overseas Contingency Operations (The War on Terror), or any man-made disaster that lurks in the darkness of world-wide naivety. The world becomes scarier every day. NATO member countries are Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Rep., Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States. New Developments: 4/4/09 Turkey blocked the appointment of a Danish candidate for the next NATO head. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish Prime Minister, was a front-runner until Turkey blocked the nomination based on Rasmussen's "handling of a row over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed." It is also reported that Rasmussen opposed Turkey's membership into the European Union. This was reported at about 12:15 pm, CDT today. A couple of hours later, the same publication reports that Rasmussen will be the new head of NATO, taking office in July. The reporter commented that "NATO members must have reached an agreement with Turkey, which had the power of veto to block the move..." There you have it. The power of veto through consensus failed this time. What's next. Read the details at Amerisrael.