Soldiers from Combined Joint Task Force 76 meet with tribal leaders near Kandahar, Afghanistan. (Jerry T. Combes / Courtesy of U.S. Army)
American and Afghan forces have launched a trio of operations in areas of the country where U.S. presence is either light or nonexistent.
“It’s a targeted operation to go after areas of what used to be considered safe havens for enemy forces,” Lt. Col. Jerry O’Hara, a spokesman for Combined/Joint Task Force-76, said in a phone interview Tuesday. He said operations, which also involve a large civilian assistance program, began last week.
There is no specific timetable on how long they might last, but it could take “as much as a few more weeks.”
The first major confrontation occurred Monday. It started when Afghan and American forces, participating in Operation Nam Dong II, came under small-arms fire while leaving a helicopter west of Tarin Kowt, in the central part of the country.
The forces returned fire, O’Hara said, killing two people. Another fled and met a small group of other suspected insurgents and all of them entered a cave. Air support was called in to destroy the cave complex.
O’Hara declined to specify what kind of air support was used and said the damage to the complex was still being assessed.
Coalition air assets with heavy firepower in Afghanistan include the Air Force’s A-10 Thunderbolt II and the Army’s Apache helicopter.
“We use an asset depending on the situation,” O’Hara said. “Everything is in play.”
That apparently includes the types of coalition forces taking part in the operations as well. O’Hara confirmed forces from the Army, Marines and Air Force, as well as substantial numbers of Afghan army forces, have participated in the operations.
Operation Nam Dong II is primarily being conducted by Afghan forces, U.S. officials said.
“We’re seeing Afghan soldiers, operating independently, ridding their country of the last vestiges of a corrupt and brutal regime,” Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya, the CJTF-76 commander, said in a prepared release. “It’s a major step toward a better and brighter future for all of Afghanistan.”
Afghan soldiers also are taking part in the other two missions, dubbed Operation Celtic and Operation Markham. Both of those operations are being conducted by company or battalion-size elements in the eastern part of the country.
“In all three operations, we’ve identified insurgent activities,” O’Hara said.
But fighting, despite expectations, has so far been minimal.
“The fact that we haven’t had contact with the enemy cannot be categorized as an unsuccessful operation,” O’Hara said.
One Army release detailed experiences around Jalalabad with a company from the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment. Eight tons of humanitarian aid were delivered in the opening days of the operation with the help of helicopter assets from the Germany-based Company F, 3rd Battalion, 158th Aviation Regiment.
“It’s a sign of success we’re not being shot at,” Capt. Eric Kelly, the Marine company commander, was quoted as saying.
O’Hara said 78,000 pounds of aid in bundles and 80 containers similar in size to railroad cars has been delivered to the Afghan population so far. Aid packages include sugar, rice, tea, tool kits, tarps, blankets, shoes and medical and school supplies.
He said people living in the targeted areas had received little or no aid and support from coalition forces in the past.
“You have to have security to have aid,” he said.
