Marines swoop into Taliban 'heart of darkness'

[Batgirl]

Well done Royals!

By Tom Coghlan in Sangeen, Afghanistan
Last Updated: 12:44am BST 07/04/2007

An armoured column of 250 Royal Marines smashed into Sangeen yesterday down the main road from the north, driving off Taliban fighters who had been attacking a small British "platoon house".

Such was the ferocity of the operation that the rebels were taken completely by surprise and, despite mounting a weak counter-attack, could not stop the Marines linking up with American troops from the 82nd Airborne Division from the south.

Embedded with Lima Company of 42 Commando under Major Gill Duncan, I can report that the operation was completed without a single British casualty. "The aim is to shock the Taliban to the point where they don't have a scoobie [clue] what is going on," 2nd Lieut Chris Sylven told the men of 7 Troop at a tense desert briefing. Senior officers claimed that it was the biggest Royal Marine raid since the Falklands conflict.


Marines take cover behind mud walls as smoke rises from a British strike

Col Matthew Holmes, commander of 42 Commando, described Sangeen as a Taliban "heart of darkness".

Intelligence had suggested that there were up to 350 Taliban in the area with advanced munitions, such as Soviet grenade launchers. There was also a warning of reinforcement by 120 fighters from the north. The Marines were told the plan required "a high level of aggression".

"This is one ballsy shout from the CO, to go up the highway and start smashing heads together," said Sgt Richard St Louis, warning his men that 16 suicide bombers might be in the town. "If someone comes towards you in a fire fight, he is dead."

The first part of the operation called for the entire force to launch its assault in a 33-vehicle armoured convoy travelling at 35 mph down the main highway.

"It was a risk on a route we had never travelled before," admitted Col Holmes. "They wouldn't expect us to jump straight in on the road from the north. They would expect the US forces to lead the attack from the south. It was an opportunity to go for it, and fortune favours the brave."

The overall commander of the 3rd Commando Brigade, Brig Jerry Thomas, said the attack sought to prevent a build-up of Taliban forces.

"There was a fear that they would reinforce quicker than we could move, leading to defences we could not defeat quickly," he said. "If we had to reduce the town to rubble, that would be a pyrrhic victory. We were looking for shock action to overload their command structure. Our intelligence suggests they went into paralysis today."

All the Marines were veterans of many fire fights with the Taliban, and the 28 men of 7 Troop fired 17,000 rounds between them in a single day in February.

At 3.30am the convoy roared into the dense and confusing confines of Sangeen. A missile from an Apache helicopter destroyed a Taliban checkpoint before the convoy reached it, enabling the Marines to move forward so quickly that some vehicles almost collided when they braked.

Nine British soldiers have died in Sangeen this year, three in the past month. Many others have been injured.

The sandbagged buildings are pitted by innumerable weapons strikes and a zone around the centre has been cleared of civilians and is razed by the fighting.

Men who have served in Sangeen say it is the worst experience of their lives.

Twenty minutes after they arrived and in the first light of dawn, the Marines began a sweep to secure the area. They were backed up by Apache helicopters, and Harriers and US F15 and F18 bombers were visible, while artillery support was available from outside the town.

The Marines and accompanying assault engineers carried "mouse hole" charges to blast holes in thick mud walls and mines to collapse Taliban tunnel systems.

Marines with heat-seeking sights scanned roof tops for rebels moving to attack. A number of figures were spotted and several engaged.

The air was filled with the disorientating thump of explosive charges followed by sprays of machine gun fire as the Marines moved through the warren of buildings, blasting holes in walls and firing into the rooms beyond. With their webbing packed with equipment, some Marines had trouble fitting through holes in the walls and had to be shoved hard from behind.

"That's £68,000 of taxpayers' money well spent," shouted one officer as a British munition hit a suspected firing point with a thump that raised a plume of dust.

By noon the Marines had achieved their objectives. Nato forces hope to hand the territory gained to Afghan forces within the next few days.

However, some Marines warned that it would be premature to write off a Taliban return in Sangeen.

"They are not stupid. They know we have massive combat power here now," said one officer. "They just melt into the background, they know we can't sustain this. Then they can move back in, and things will be as they were."

Telegraph

[Batgirl]

Details below of the Canadian effort...


Canadian combat team herds huge coalition convoy through southern Afghanistan

SANGIN, Afghanistan (CP) - Like an alert sheepdog with its fangs bared, a Canadian combat team herded a huge column of coalition vehicles through Taliban country Friday.

A line of trucks and Humvees stretching back kilometres slowly rumbled through Helmand province, their headlights vainly trying to stab through thick clouds of dust in the pre-dawn light.

The convoy of Afghan and American troops and tonnes of supplies is heading to the Sangin Valley - where coalition forces and insurgents are fighting it out.

It is the job of the Gagetown, N.B.-based Royal Canadian Regiment battle group to help get them there safely.

"Every time we move, it is a combat operation," said Maj. Alex Ruff, who commands the team of tanks, armoured infantry and mine-clearing vehicles.

"The potential always exists. That's why we are here."

The main body of the convoy is an Afghan National Army infantry battalion, its troops jammed into the back of unarmoured Ford Ranger pick-ups, some flying big red, black and green national flags.

There are also vulnerable fuel and munitions trucks and tractor-trailers carrying heavy construction gear that roll overland across the desert and through fields blooming thick with purple and scarlet opium poppies.

The column stretches out and compresses like an accordion, starting and stopping, rarely going faster than 30 kilometres an hour.

The Canadian combat team watches over the trucks, dashing ahead to ridge lines, the turrets of the Leopard tanks and LAV-3 armoured vehicles traversing right and left searching for threats.

Other Canadian vehicles nip at the tail of the column, keeping it closed up and ensuring there are no stragglers.

Ruff, from Tara, Ont., said his biggest concerns are landmines and roadside bombs, but his troops - who have been living out in the desert for a solid month - are ready for anything.

"The ground creates choke-points at certain locations and the Taliban will try to get out ahead of us and mine it," he said.

As the hours roll by, radios inside vehicles crackle with reports of the vanguard of the column detecting two such mines before they explode.

The push into Helmand from Kandahar province is a first for the Canadian battle group as NATO's International Security Assistance Force ups the pressure on Taliban in the opium poppy-rich province.

ISAF launched Operation Achilles on March 6 to drive the Taliban out of northern Helmand

NATO troops conducted an air assault into the Sangin area Wednesday night to secure the insurgent stronghold, which commands the approaches to the strategic Kajaki dam. The convoy is part of the follow-up to maintain control of the area.

The Afghan government and the coalition want to refurbish the dam to bring electricity and water for irrigation to the parched area.

Farmers in Helmand depend on growing poppies to feed their families.

The coalition hopes better security, cheap water and electricity will help farmers grow other crops such as corn and wheat.

Canadian troops in the combat team said they can sense that some farmers are unhappy to see the coalition, perhaps unduly worried the convoy is part of the Afghan government's poppy eradication campaign.

"There are people here who seem agitated to see us," said Master Warrant Officer Wayne O'Toole, who is from St. John's, Nfld.

O'Toole, the team's sergeant-major, spends hours standing in the hatch of a LAV-3 watching for trouble.

"The general consensus is that we are here to plow under their poppy fields and take their crops away."

After hours on the road, some Canadian troops push to within 10 kilometres of the Sangin district centre, handing over the line of trucks to coalition troops from Estonia and American paratroopers.

While there have been a few mechanical breakdowns along the way, there have been no losses from the Taliban.

"Things went very smoothly," said Ruff, his eyes red with fatigue after spending the day moving his troops and shepherding his flock.

He downplays the risks and challenges of riding herd on such a huge convoy through forbidding terrain.

"It is always better to go big than to go small."

© The Canadian Press, 2007

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