Engineer Marines begin civil development projects in Durzay

DURZAY, Afghanistan - Following a recent, large-scale military operation in Durzay, Marines are beginning to conduct civil development projects in an effort to improve transportation and security for military units and Afghan civilians in the rural, southern Helmand village.

In January, Marines with 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division (Forward), conducted a one-day clearing operation in order to drive out Taliban forces occupying Durzay and surrounding areas.

Immediately following the successful completion of the operation, engineers and heavy equipment operators with Combat Logistics Battalion 3, 1st Marine Logistics Group (Forward), constructed two bridges and improved several stretches of road leading into Durzay. Working continuously, approximately 25 Marines with CLB-3’s Engineer Company completed these engineering projects in less than three days.

These combat engineers have conducted several civil development projects throughout Afghanistan’s Helmand province since arriving in Afghanistan last October, but this was the first time they have operated in Durzay. Likewise, many Durzay residents had never seen any coalition forces prior to 2/1’s arrival and CLB-3’s supporting operations.

According to 1st Lt. Elizabeth Stroud, 25, platoon commander, Engineer Company, CLB-3, 1st MLG (FWD), in the nearly 10 years that coalition forces have spent operating in Afghanistan, January marked the first time Durzay residents had seen examples of a U.S. presence in Afghanistan.

“I’ve spoken with many of the residents in Durzay, and they are very thankful for our work here,” said Stroud, a native of Hutto, Texas. “In talking with them, I found that they realize [our] ultimate goal is to provide them with freedom, and that the Taliban has been driven out. We’re also thankful that [the clearing operation] has provided us this opportunity to be some of the first individuals to interact with [Durzay’s] residents.”

Due to the Marines’ interaction and the Afghan citizens’ appreciation for CLB-3’s support, the engineering operation was an overwhelmingly positive experience for both parties.

One local Durzay resident says he feels much safer now that Marines have arrived in his community to help dispel Taliban forces occupying his village. The Durzay resident is a 28-year-old farmer who had never seen any coalition forces prior to January.

“I am very happy with the Marines because they have provided a huge change in this village,” said the Durzay resident, through an interpreter. “The constant patrols and these [projects] will help Durzay. Marines first came here a couple of weeks ago, and already I can see and feel a difference.”

Sources : waronterrornews

Wounded Warrior Inspired by New Sport

Arash Arabasadi VoA News Washington, D.C: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is not your typical martial art. It combines wrestling and joint manipulation, and those who practice it say technique trumps size. But Tyler Anderson is not your typical martial artist either. For the U.S. Army Staff Sergeant, learning this new skill is just one of his life’s many challenges.

When Anderson took up Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, he found things were a little different from his previous wrestling experience.

"When I first started doing Jiu Jitsu without a leg, the first thing that I noticed was I was a really good wrestler and body control is something that I was very good at," he says.

Tyler Anderson lost his leg while on patrol in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan.

Anderson lost his leg patrolling in Kandahar Province, on his second tour in Afghanistan.

“We sent a team around for security and I went to clear the road, once I thought the road was clear, I looked back to call my team forward, that took pressure off of the mine that I had been stepping on, it exploded. Initially it took off my leg below the knee, a finger, and a lot of shrapnel on the inside of my leg.”

While he was in the hospital after his injury, the decorated veteran found his calling.

“Once you get injured you come to the hospital, it’s kind of tough to be just sitting in a wheelchair and get taken out of that lifestyle," says Anderson. "For me Jiu Jitsu is really a release, it’s a form of helping me focus. I’ll admit that being active and missing a leg is a totally new world that you don’t know about. It’s a little scary to think that you might not be able to do the active things that you use to do.”

“Luis himself came to the hospital asked me if I wanted to do Jiu Jitsu and I jumped right on it, I was very excited," says Anderson. "It’s guys like him that give us the opportunity to take the time and want to get in there and show us that you know you have a disability but you can still do the things that everybody else does.”

Pantoja teaches Jiu Jitsu for the Wounded Warriors’ project at the Walter Reed Medical Facility in Washington. It's a rehabilitation center where injured American soldiers come for treatment.

“I’ve been working with Tyler for over six months, and you know he s a very dedicated student, he picks things up very fast and it’s actually satisfying to see people improve overall," says Pantoja. "I’ve seen what Jiu Jitsu has done with my life. Pretty much all my friendships come from Jiu Jitsu, so I see what it can do to people and how motivating it is."

Teaching amputees poses its own challenges and is also a learning process for the instructor.

“I have to think a little bit harder about how can I adapt my techniques for these guys. Their balance might be a little compromised due to, for example, an amputation,” says Pantoja. “To be honest with you it’s not just me teaching them, I learn a lot from them, and we kind of throw back and forth ideas. So it has actually made me grow as an instructor, as a Jiu Jitsu practitioner in general. I’ve learned a lot just working with these guys.”

Pantoja’s friendship and teaching helped speed up Anderson’s recovery. The soldier has learned how to use his new body, and continues changing with the world around him.

The Purple Heart recipient says the message is simple. “Really the biggest thing is just to get out there and do it. Don’t give up. That’s about it. That’s all you can do is just keep on.”

Sources : waronterrornews

Freedom for Sulemanshazi as Insurgents Run Scared

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The increasingly-weakened state of the Taleban insurgency in Helmand has been demonstrated once again, as British and Afghan troops cleared and secured a town with no resistance.

Evidently scared off by the Afghan and British forces presence and the force shown in previous strikes, insurgents who had been terrorising the community of Sulemanshazi and using it as a base for their activities fled without even putting up a fight.


Now progress in the area is moving forward at pace, with soldiers from The Royal Highland Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland (2 SCOTS), supporting their Afghan counterparts in ensuring long-term security in the town, just south of Babaji.

A new Afghan National Police checkpoint is up and running and a main road – known to the Brits as Route Ayrshire – has been cleared of improvised explosive devices and made more resistant to future ones being laid, rendering it safe for local people to use once again.

The decisive operation came earlier this month when Afghan and British soldiers were inserted by helicopter to investigate suspected insurgent locations in the area, close to the Helmand River. Searches were conducted but nothing was found and locals stated that earlier strikes, as well as a perception of growing strength of the Afghan National Police in the area, had scared the insurgents away.

The police checkpoint was established in the aftermath, with the ANP selecting a location on an arterial route to provide permanent security and a visible government presence for the area. The clearance of Route Ayrshire, for which soldiers from 2 SCOTS and the Afghan National Army worked in conjunction with the UK Counter-IED Task Force, began at the same time.

Now options for further development of Sulemanshazi are being considered, in conjunction with the local population, including further road improvement works, the building of a school, and job creation and training schemes to boost the economy.

Captain James Collinge, of 2 SCOTS, said:

“Our hard work has paid dividends with more than 200 local people moving back into the area and a real sense of community spirit emerging. The insurgents are rapidly running out of safe havens and we are causing major disruption to their evil activities.”

Second Lieutenant Matt Alder, of 2 SCOTS, added:

“The locals around the new checkpoint are exceptionally happy to have the ANP and us providing security in the area. We sit with them daily to discuss local issues and how we can best improve the future of the area. It has been unbelievably rewarding and I can’t wait to see the next phase of development here, which will bring even more happiness to the locals who have suffered so much in the past.”

One local man in Sulemanshazi said of the new police checkpoint:

“This is great for the local area. It shows that the local police care about our security and are working hard to improve it. It is also nice to see that, more and more, Afghans instead of foreign faces are providing the security for our region.”

Bomber kills governor in southern Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber riding a motorcycle packed with explosives rammed into a car carrying the deputy governor of Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province on Saturday, killing him and wounding three of his bodyguards, the Interior Ministry said.
The attacker struck as the official, Abdul Latif Ashna, was being driven to work in the provincial capital, said a ministry spokesman, Zemeri Bashary.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. In a text message to reporters, Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef said the suicide bomber killed the deputy governor as well as three of his body guards and his driver.
U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry, who was traveling in Kandahar, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the assassination.
Kandahar, located in the Taliban’s traditional southern stronghold, has been the scene of several attacks recently. Two weeks ago a bicycle bomb targeting police vehicles near the city center wounded at least 10 people — six civilians and four police. Last month, a suicide car bombing in the city center killed three people and wounded 26 others, most of them police.
“The enemies of Afghanistan cannot stop the Afghan people from development and progress by killing such personalities,” Karzai said in a statement. “There are thousands of other brave Afghans who will stand against the enemy and serve the people.”
Also on Saturday, Karzai expressed his sadness over the deaths of six members of a prominent Afghan family who were killed when a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up Friday at Kabul supermarket frequented by affluent Afghans and foreigners.
In a statement, Karzai said Dr. Massoud Yama, a young doctor at a military hospital, his wife, Hamida Barmaki, a political science professor at Kabul University, and their four children died in the attack. She was an activist and served on the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission.
Yama’s mother and Barmaki’s mother-in-law is former Afghan senator Maboba Hoqiqmal, who currently is Karzai’s legal affairs adviser.
Afghan police officials said initially that two or three foreigners were among eight people killed in the bombing. However, the Kabul Police Department released a statement Saturday night saying that no foreigners died in the incident. So far, no foreign embassy has confirmed the death of any foreign victims.
Mohammad Zahir, the chief of criminal investigation for the Kabul police, said one man, one boy and six females — all Afghan — died in the blast. Fifteen other people were injured in the explosion — 10 Afghans and five foreigners, he said.
The Taliban said their target was an official with the U.S.-based Xe security contractor, formerly known as Blackwater. A representative for USTC Holdings, which recently bought the North Carolina-based Xe, said no one associated with the company was killed or wounded in the bombing.
A senior international intelligence official in Kabul said Saturday that the Taliban’s Haqqani network, which has ties to al-Qaida, carried out the attack, but that there was no intelligence to suggest that the security contractor was being targeted. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose the information.
Elsewhere in the capital, more than 200 demonstrators rallied at the Iranian Embassy to protest the execution of Afghans in Iran and call on Tehran to release Afghan political prisoners. Similar protests, all organized by the National Solidarity Party, attracted hundreds of other demonstrators in Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan and Herat in the west.
Protesters in Kabul carried signs that said “Death to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,” showed photographs of Afghans held in Iran and depicted blood dripping from the red stripe of the Iranian flag.
Afghan lawmakers have claimed that as many as 45 Afghans had been executed in Iran, but the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said that number is exaggerated. The ministry, which has raised the issue with Iranian officials in Tehran, has confirmed the execution of six Afghans in Iran but has not provided details about why they were killed.
“The ones fighting for freedom have been jailed in Iran,” said Mohammad Yama, who helped organize the protest in Kabul. “We are here to show our unity. We wanted to burn down our effigy of Ahmadinejad, but the Afghan police took it away.”
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Associated Press writers Heidi Vogt in Kandahar and Deb Riechmann and Patrick Quinn in Kabul contributed to this report.