A Battlefield Tourist

Garmser Grows Silent

Jun 6 at 2:02pm by David Tate

After 35 straight days of combat, Marines from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) are beginning to push ahead with civil affairs projects, as combat in Garmser has been on hold since June 1st.  The Marines report more than 150 engagements since the fighting began.

Already, Afghan security forces are taking up positions around the newly liberated areas that will soon be handed over to them, and British forces, once the US Marines move on.   When that will happen is still up in the air. 

While fighting has slowed, the Marines are only about a third of the way through the more than one hundred villages that dot the Helmand River Valley, before the river veers west into neighboring Nimroz Province.  A desert wasteland of roughly 25 kilometers separates the Helmand River Valley from Pakistan to the south.

More than 4000 families were displaced by the fighting, many of whom are beginning to return.  British and Afghan forces have also held a jirga (meeting) with some 200 returning refugees, including more than 100 of whom are described as village elders.  As the Marines move south, they’re putting together a census and working with locals to initiate humanitarian projects (picture above provided by 24 MEU).

The Fight for Garmser

In the early morning hours of April 28th, Marines assaulted Garmser district’s center, also called Garmser.   Three Marine companies flooded the area by ground and through the air.  The maneuver element of 24 MEU,  Battalion Landing Team (BLT) 1/6,  is made up of three infantry companies, two of which air assaulted into position southeast of Garmser as the battle unfolded.  British forces, already in place in the center of town, coordinated with the Marines during the attack.  Support for the force came from a British post about 10 miles west of Garmser called FOB Dwyer.  Scottish forces based at the Garmser Agriculture college were also involved in the fight.

In all, the Marines claim to have killed more than 150 Taliban fighters while uncovering nearly 50 weapons caches. One Marine, a scout/sniper, was also killed with four others wounded.

A majority of Taliban forces, which continualy reinforced their fighters during the battle, are believed to have fled northwest toward Farah Province and south across the “Desert of Death” toward villages and refugee camps on the Pakistani-side of the border.

Coalition forces in Farah have been attacking those retreating forces, killing more than a hundred in a handful of decisive engagements.  A U.S. Special Forces soldier was killed in that fighting.

What’s Next For 24 MEU?

When the Marines landed in Kandahar, they came with a laundry list of objectives, the first being Garmser.  The town was used by the Taliban for a number of strategic reasons: 

First, it was a hub for terrorists coming across from Pakistan into Afghanistan.  Here they would be fitted with equipment, trained and then pressed into service against the British.  Once they got experience under their belts, the fighters would then be sent to other areas of the country.   While there are homegrown fighters among the ranks, foreigners, including Iranians, Arabs and a majority of Pakistanis make up their ranks.

Second, Garmser is a major hub for drug trafficing that supports the insurgency.  The area’s best roads snake away from Garmser toward Farah and then onto Iran.  This route is what the coalition believes is the main route that supplies Iran, and then Europe, with heroin from the world’s top-producing region.

Finally, the road that heads southeast out of Garmser, toward Pakistan, is the only viable road from the Helmand River Valley into Pakistan.  The coalition believes this road is the primary route that supplies the region’s insurgency with weapons and supplies.  This road is also the main focus of the Marines’ current assault. “This is an artery and we did not realize that when we squeezed that artery, it would have such an effect,” said First Lieutenant Mark Matzke, the executive officer of Charlie Company told the New York Times in late May.

What’s next for the Marines is now the big question. Since the 24th MEU relies on its air assets, which are based at Kandahar Air Field, operations will most likely remain in the Helmand, Kandahar, Oruzgan and Zabul Province areas. There is also a strong chance the Marines will find themselves in Farah Province where large areas of that province are under complete control of the Taliban. In particular, Bala Buluk and Bakwa districts are considered Taliban havens.

Wherever the Marines end up, it is a near guarantee that it will be wherever the largest concentration of Taliban are located in Regional Command South. The Marines are not in Afghanistan to hold ground, but are there to take as much ground as they can with the understanding it will be turned over to suffiicient, more permenant forces… providing those forces are available.