PDA

View Full Version : 2nd MEB makes gains, expects more fighting



bobdina
07-10-2009, 05:24 PM
2nd MEB makes gains, expects more fighting

By Dan Lamothe - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jul 10, 2009 7:55:38 EDT

After seven days of seizing poppy-rich areas of southern Afghanistan, the Marine Corps is planning a shift to gain the trust of Afghan civilians but expects the Taliban to return and fight for the land, the top Marine commander there said Wednesday.

Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, commander of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, said that although Marines have engaged the Taliban only about 20 times in the first seven days of a massive operation to take control of Helmand province, he expects more resistance in coming months, once insurgents realize the Corps isn’t leaving anytime soon.

“The enemy isn’t just going to stay away,” Nicholson said in a telephone conference with reporters at the Pentagon. “This area is far too valuable to the Taliban.”

One Marine has been killed in combat since the Corps launched Operation Khanjar (“Strike the Sword”) on July 2, sending some 4,000 Marines and 650 Afghan soldiers into rural areas of Afghanistan that have been controlled by the Taliban for years.
Call for partnership

Nicholson said the relative ease with which Marines have laid claim to the region is encouraging, but he’d eventually like to see every 1,000-strong Marine battalion in Afghanistan partnered with an Afghan battalion, which each have about 500 troops. Every Marine company involved in the operation has about a platoon of Afghan service members working with it.

“I’m not going to sugar coat it,” he said. “The fact of the matter is we don’t have enough Afghan forces, and I’d like more.”

In the meantime, Marines and Afghan soldiers have begun to reach out in the villages and towns they have captured. Small unit leaders have met with local Afghans leaders in several locations, and rank-and-file Marines are beginning to settle in existing settlements with Afghan villagers, Nicholson said. They’ve been instructed to interact with civilians while remaining ready for combat.

“I tell my guys you should expect some of both [combat and interacting with villagers] and you better be able to hand out Jolly Ranchers and 5.56[mm] ammunition with equal enthusiasm and accuracy,” he said.

To date, the biggest threat Marines have faced is heat. Helicopters are flying in pallets of water “day and night,” but the temperature regularly exceeds 100 degrees and is “hot like fire,” Nicholson said.

On Monday, about 500 Marines with Camp Lejeune, N.C.-based 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion rolled into Khan Neshin, the southernmost town in Helmand before the Afghan-Pakistan border. The seizure of the town marked the first time coalition forces have established a long-term presence in a city that far south in Helmand.

On Wednesday, the provincial governor visited an area castle with 18th-century roots and raised an Afghan flag there for the first time, Nicholson said. He compared the moment to the famous raising of the U.S. flag on the island Iwo Jima during World War II.


http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/07/marine_afghanistan_070809w/