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