Marines Launch Afghan Offensive

[David]

AP


Hundreds of American Marines and Afghan special forces Saturday trekked far into remote Afghan mountains to retake a valley controlled by militants suspected of ambushing a team of U.S. commandos and shooting down a special forces helicopter.

The major offensive in eastern Kunar province, near the border with Pakistan, is the biggest yet against those believed responsible for the twin attacks on June 28, the deadliest blow for American forces in Afghanistan since ousting the Taliban in 2001.

Three members of a four-man Navy SEAL team were killed in the ambush, and all 16 troops on board the Chinook chopper that was sent to rescue them died when it was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

Saturday's offensive came after a deadly week for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Seven American troops have died, as well as dozens of suspected militants and civilians, reinforcing concerns that crucial elections next month to elect lawmakers for a new legislature may be threatened by widespread violence.

Hundreds of Afghan rebels, as well as militants from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Chechnya, are thought to be hiding in Kunar's Korengal Valley and are intent on disrupting the elections, according to U.S. military and Afghan special forces commanders in the area.

"We want them running for their lives way up in the hills where they can't attack polling stations," said Capt. John Moshane, of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, based in Hawaii. "We want to isolate them from the community."

U.S. and Afghan forces started moving into position at one end of the valley Thursday, about 120 miles east of the capital Kabul. They were digging mortar and machine-gun pits for a temporary resupply base in the middle of a corn field near Kandagal, a village of about 100 farmers and their families.

The move sparked an immediate response from the militants, who attacked a nearby U.S. base and a convoy of troops with rockets, but they all missed.

American and Afghan troops started hiking into the rugged mountains Friday and Saturday, as A-10 attack aircraft circled high above. Many of the teams led lines of donkeys laden with food and water. The operation was expected to last at least two weeks, Moshane said.

One of the main objectives is breaking up a network of militants led by a local Taliban leader, Ahmad Shah, also known as Ismail, who is believed responsible for the June 28 attacks, said Kirimat Tanhah, a commander in the U.S.-trained and funded Afghan Special Forces.

Shah is suspected of having ties to al Qaeda militants in Pakistan, he said.

"Ismail's men ambushed the SEAL team and shot down the helicopter," he said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Many of them are foreigners and have trained in Pakistan and elsewhere."

He said Shah was also paying local impoverished villagers to fight for him.

Lt. Col. Jim Donnellan, the commander of the Marines battalion, said Shah had claimed responsibility for the ambush of the commandos and downing the chopper.

But he said there were lots of other "bad guys" in the area, including al Qaeda militants, fighters loyal to renegade former premier Gulbuddin Hekmatyar ? who is wanted by the United States ? and other Taliban groups, as well as scores of criminals involved in timber and gem smuggling who are opposed to the U.S. presence in the region.

"Some of them are thugs, others are political ideologues, coming in and throwing their money around," he said. "Many villagers are paid good money to work with the militants."

Meanwhile, a local shepherd, Sher Alam, who rescued the fourth Navy SEAL commando, the only one who survived the June 28 ambush, was in hiding after militants threatened to kill him, according to two of his fellow tribesmen.

"Men distributed leaflets around our village saying they were going to kill him," said Shah Wali, a neighbor. "His wife and children are being protected by others in the village, but Sher had to leave."

He said Alam was grazing his animals when he found the commando hiding in mountains after the ambush. He said the Navy SEAL pointed his gun at Alam, but the shepherd raised his shirt to show he had no weapon and was not a threat.

Alam took him to his home and bandaged his wounds, before walking to a nearby U.S. base to ask them to come and pick him up, Wali said.

He said Alam, who is Pashtun, the same ethnicity as the Taliban, gave sanctuary to the commando because "it is our culture."

"We would help anyone who asks, anyone ... well, except Osama bin Laden because he damaged our country," he added.

Donnellan, the Marines commander, confirmed that the SEAL was saved and sheltered by a local villager, but he declined to elaborate.





U.S. Marines fill sand bags as they set up defensive positions in Kandagal village, Kunar province, eastern Afghanistan ahead of new offensive.

[BLUEHAWK]

May they be victorious.

May they all come home safe.

[catman]

David...not sure where you get these stories, but I thank you from the bottom of my heart for bringing them to us.

You, my friend, my brother, will go down in history.

I know we chewed alot of the same dirt in 91, we never met, wish we had.

Trav