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View Full Version : Marines want more Afghan help to hold Helmand



bobdina
07-17-2009, 12:10 PM
After major gains seizing poppy rich areas of southern Afghanistan, the 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. Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, commander of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, said July 8 that Marines engaged the Taliban about 20 times in the first week 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.” Three Marines were killed in Operation Khanjar — “Strike the Sword” — between July 2-9, Marine officials said. The operation sent some 4,000 Marines and 650 Afghan soldiers to seize rural areas of Afghanistan that have been controlled by the Taliban for years.
Nicholson said the relative ease with which Marines have laid claim to the region is encouraging, but eventually he’d like to see every 1,000-strong Marine battalion in Afghanistan partnered with an Afghan battalion of 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 sugarcoat it,” he said. “The fact of the matter is we don’t have enough Afghan forces, and I’d like more.”
Candy and bullets
Meanwhile, Marines and Afghan soldiers are reaching out in the captured villages and towns. Small-unit leaders have met with local Afghan leaders in several locations, and Marines are settling in existing villages with Afghan civilians, Nicholson said. They’ve been instructed to interact with them 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.
On July 6, 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


Courtesy of Marine Corps Times