A Battlefield Tourist

US Marines, Brits Push the Fight in Southern Afghanistan

Jun 1 at 10:10pm by David Tate

British troops moved into areas on the western flank of US Marines fighting in Garmser, allowing the Marines to continue their push south in a running battle with Taliban forces that the US commander on the ground describes as, “the most intense (fighting)”.   Since the fighting began, Marines have been involved in more than 100 firefights.

The Hammer

Lt. Col. Pete Petronzio, commanding officer of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Force, says the fighting his combat element has seen is ”fairly consistent” since a combined US/British/Afghan force retook the district center, Garmser in an operation dubbed, “Asada Wosa”.  The four day battle in early May was spearheaded by 1st Battalion, Sixth Marines, which killed an estimated 150 fighters, many of them foreign.  Three Marines have died so far: Two, including the acting Command Sgt. Major, died in an IED attack on their convoy en route to Helmand Province on April 15th.  A Marine sniper was also killed May 19th when he was hit by small arms fire.

The Marines, expecting to be in the area for just a few weeks before turning security over to the British and Afghans, are now pushing through a farming section of the district that runs some 40 kilometers long and 15 kilometers wide.  More than 100 named villages are in the area of operations with hundreds of other smaller settlements spread throughout.

Coalition intelligence estimates that as many as 500 Taliban fighters are operating in Garmser, with scores coming into the battle as reinforcements. 

A senior British general’s assessment of the current situation is the most optimistic military news to come out of Helmand Province since the war began.  “We are not complacent and suggesting they (Taliban forces) do not have the capacity to regenerate, but they are very much off the frontfoot and licking their wounds.”, Brigadier Gordon Messenger told the London newspaper, The Guardian.  Messenger’s assessment is that the remaining Taliban fighters are preparing defenses in Bakwa district, Farah Province, which shares Helmand’s northwest border.

The Anvil

The second element of the 2008 Afghan “surge force” is 2nd Battalion, Seventh Marine Regiment, First Marine Division.  2/7 is tasked with helping to secure Farah Province by providing hands-on training to the Afghan police force that is notoriously undermanned, under trained and outgunned.  The Marines greatly bolster an often uncoordinated security force made up of US, Italian and Afghan Forces.  2/7 Marines will also work in other Regional Command South areas, in particular Helmand and Nimroz Provinces.

Dividends for the coalition are already paying off as more than 30 Taliban fighters were killed May 29th by coalition airstrikes in Bala Baluk district.  The fighters were surrounded by coalition forces after being tracked retreating from the offensive in Helmand Province.

100 more Taliban fighters were reported killed during a two-day operation in Bakwa district, just south of Bala Baluk and bordering Helmand Province.  An American Special Forces soldier was also killed.