For the route clearance team of US Marines, another tense night crammed inside their armored vehicles was proof that winning control of Afghanistan’s roads would not be easy.
The 1st Combat Engineer Battalion’s 10-vehicle convoy was trying to open up an important road into the south of Helmand Province when a series of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) left them stranded for days.
With the route blocked — and more IEDs apparently being laid every night — badly needed supplies could not get through to infantry troops who had been air-lifted deep into Taliban-held territory more than a week earlier.
The journey from Camp Delhi in Garmsir district to the infantry’s position at Mian Poshteh was just 30km, but the route clearance convoy was still far from its destination after 72 tough hours on the road.
At noon on Wednesday, the first IED destroyed an anti-mine roller being pushed by the convoy’s lead vehicle, a reporter traveling with the Marines witnessed.
It was the start of a series of bomb blasts and logistical setbacks that highlighted the US military’s vulnerability to guerrilla tactics being deployed by Taliban insurgents in the difficult terrain of the Helmand River valley.
The explosion sent the roller’s pieces flying into the air and flipped the 17,000kg mine-resistant, ambush-protected truck onto its side, nearly toppling it into a canal that ran beside the dirt road.
“Suddenly everything went black and we were falling towards the canal,” the truck’s driver, Private Donnie Hamiliton, said. “I escaped through the gun turret.”
The massively reinforced vehicle, a new addition to the US fleet, has been lauded for saving troops’ lives but is so heavy that special lifting equipment is needed to put it upright again.
At 4am the next day, the rescue team finally arrived along the same route — only to hit an IED that was apparently planted overnight to strike them.
The explosion wrecked another mine-resistant truck and caused hours more delays as Marines used hand-held mine-sweepers to check the road between the two blasts and burned damaged equipment to stop it falling into Taliban hands.
The convoy finally got back on the road on Thursday evening, but within an hour was hit by a third IED that destroyed a “Husky” mine-detector vehicle.
It meant another long, hot night inside the convoy’s remaining vehicles with gunners on constant alert for a likely ambush.
Since the first blast, just a couple of kilometers of road had been covered and seven further IEDs had been discovered and dismantled.
“We have got to go down this road, and there’s a lot of problem solving involved,” Lieutenant Dan Jernigan said.
“Right now, because we have such a focused effort [into south Helmand], it is easy for them to predict where we need to go,” he said. “Vehicles are being blown apart but the Marines inside are being kept safe. Not to sound cavalier, but it is better we take the blast than Humvees or someone else such as villagers.”
The US’ efforts to stabilize the Afghan government and defeat the Taliban rely on controlling Helmand, where much of the opium that funds the insurgency is grown and through which Taliban fighters travel to safe havens in Pakistan.
But mines set by the Taliban — and detonated either by a trigger man with a command wire or by pressure plate — threaten the US’ plan to provide security for the region.
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
‘TROUBLING’: The firing of Phelan, who was an adviser to a nonprofit that supported the defense of Taiwan, was another example of ‘dysfunction’ under Trump, a US senator said US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been fired, a US official and a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in another wartime shakeup at the Pentagon coming just weeks after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ousted the Army’s top general. The Pentagon announced his departure in a brief statement, saying he was leaving the administration “effective immediately,” but it did not provide a reason or say whether it was his decision to go. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Phelan was dismissed in part because he was moving too slowly to implement reforms to
RSS