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July 11, 2009
“Held Down” Under Heavy Fire: Echo Company Marines From 2/8 Battle To Hold Position
“Held Down” Under Heavy Fire: Echo Company Marines From 2/8 Battle To Hold Position
Troops from a US Marine company in Afghanistan have been under almost constant fire since entering the country with 4,000 other troops during the week.
Since flying in by helicopter to Mian Poshteh in Helmand province, troops from the 2/8 infantry battalion have been held down by insurgents.
The 200 Marines are still fighting to hold position and have had to call in helicopter gunships for assistance.
Taliban fighters have been using small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and rockets against the Marines
One Marine was killed in the hostile fire in the first day of the battle, while others are succumbing to the intense heat in the area and are being evacuated to medical facilities.
The Marines are in an area which is criss-crossed by canals and irrigation ditches which were built by the US in the 1950s and 1960s to aid agriculturalists in the region.
Opium has become the mainstay on local farms, where the owners have been forced by the Taliban insurgency to grow the crop.
Agencie France Presse:
GARMSIR, Afghanistan
AFP
Since 4,000 US Marines pushed into Taliban-controlled areas of southern Afghanistan on Thursday, one company has been in a constant firefight with the insurgents, the military said.
Troops from Echo company of the 2/8 infantry battalion flew in by helicopter to Mian Poshteh, a key canal and road junction in Helmand province, as part of President Barack Obama’s efforts to finally defeat the Islamist militants.
The 200 Marines fighting to hold the position arrived at dawn on Thursday, and they were still engaged in fierce combat through the weekend, Major Dan Gaskell told AFP at nearby Camp Delhi.
“Echo company landed by the canal intersection and set up shop,” he said late Saturday. “They have been fighting to hold that position.
“The enemy really wants it back, and have been doing everything they can to dislodge Echo. That continues.”
The US has called in helicopter gunships three times to help the Marines, Gaskell said, including one attack using a Hellfire missile.
He said about 40 Taliban fighters were using small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and rockets against the Marines, who have based themselves in a walled compound.
“The enemy tactic is to conduct a feint attack from one compass direction, then fire from a second direction, and follow up with a proper attack from a third,” he said.
“They have shown the ability to switch back and forth, so the combination may come from any angle.”
One Marine was killed by hostile fire in the first day of the battle, while at least two others have suffered chronic heat exhaustion in the scorching temperatures and had to be evacuated by helicopter.
“Mian Poshteh is the most difficult situation in the current operation,” Gaskell said of the site 25 kilometres (15 miles) south of Camp Delta in the Garmsir district of Helmand.
“The enemy are against a 200-plus Marine company, which is the most feared thing in the world. But we have rules of engagement and destroying everything in the area is not our intent. We fight back in a proportional way.”
The Helmand River valley is criss-crossed with canals and irrigation ditches built by the US in the 1950s and 1960s to promote agriculture in the region, but the main crop is now opium which funds much of the Islamist insurgency.
“The terrain is pretty tricky and easy to get bogged down in, especially with the weight of gear that Marines carry,” Gaskell said.
“The Hellfire missile was fired after the company commander had spent eight hours trying to manoeuvre in on one pocket of resistance. We knew from live aerial video there were no civilians there.”
He said another air attack, on Saturday afternoon, was “a helicopter rocket and gun run” that had either killed those targeted or forced them to flee the tree line from where they were firing on the Marines.
Operation Khanjar, which involved thousands of Marines moving into the Helmand valley to extend the reach of the Afghan central government, has faced generally light resistance.
But US commanders say they expect their troops to soon be hit by counter-attacks.
“The enemy assumes that within several days we’ll be leaving but we’re not going anywhere,” Lieutenant Colonel Christian Cabaniss, in charge of the US operations around Garmsir, said.
“We’ve picked good ground, close to the population centres, and we’re going to stay.
“But we do want to know why the enemy have chosen to fight at Mian Poshteh. Perhaps there’s a high value commander there.”
The military’s plan is to improve security in Helmand so that locals reject the hardline Taliban in favour of the central government, allowing international troops who have been in the country since 2001 to eventually withdraw.
The area south of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, is the world?s biggest opium-growing region and a route for Taliban fighters joining the insurgency from across the Pakistan border.
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Footage of Marines from Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines conducting Operation Strike of the Sword. Scenes include Marines waiting then boarding helicopters and on patrol in Sorhduz. Provided by NATO TV.
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Wild Thing's comment.......
God's speed to our troops and protect them.
Posted by Wild Thing at July 11, 2009 06:48 AM
Comments
“The enemy are against a 200-plus Marine company, which is the most feared thing in the world. But we have rules of engagement and destroying everything in the area is not our intent. We fight back in a proportional way.”
Fight back in a Proportional way ?, what dose that mean. This is not, how to fight a war, tie the hands of the troops then tell them to fight it out. These ROE's suck.
Does the government want this thing to last forever, give those Marines the same ROE's they had on Tarawa. Then it will end real quick.
These selective Rules of Engagement do nothing but save the Taliban and gets good soldiers killed. These men are putting it on the line for their country and this is what obama gives them to fight with. What a POS.
Posted by: Mark at July 11, 2009 01:43 PM
This says Democrat as definitively as any statement in the history of this Country and it comes from the head of the party, the CIC, Itself.
"Look, it's an all volunteer force," Obama complained. "Nobody made these guys go to war. They had to have known and accepted the risks. Now they whine about bearing the costs of their choice? It doesn't compute.." "I thought these were people who were proud to sacrifice for their Country," Obama continued. "I wasn't asking for blood, just money. With the country facing the worst financial crisis in its history, I'd have thought that the patriotic thing to do would be to try to help reduce the nation's deficit. I guess I underestimated the selfishness of some of my Fellow Americans." I'll stop before my vocabulary lapses.
Mark has said it for me, thanks.
Posted by: Jack at July 11, 2009 02:48 PM
Mark, I agree, this is all from Obama's ROE
making them hold back it has me so upset.
Posted by: Wild Thing at July 11, 2009 11:16 PM
Jack a big ole Ditto to that.
Posted by: Wild Thing at July 11, 2009 11:16 PM
