Free Republic

Marine Corps UH-1Y pilot Capt. Brian Jordan was low on fuel when he heard a frantic plea. Two British soldiers had been hit by a Taliban Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and were at death’s door. It was June 21, 2012, in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Jordan had had a busy week of flying missions when he learned that a small unit of British Grenadier Guards were pinned down under heavy enemy fire. They needed an urgent MEDEVAC. There is no hesitation for what becomes an unplanned Casualty Evacuation (CASEVAC). Jordan and his crew push through combat fire to help brothers-in-arms. These...

U.S. Marines in Afghanistan killed dozens of Taliban leaders last week using rocket artillery after tracking them to a meeting in volatile Helmand Province, according to the top American general in Afghanistan Wednesday. U.S. Forces Afghanistan said more than 50 Taliban commanders, including the deputy Taliban shadow governor of Helmand was killed. Taliban leaders from six other provinces across Afghanistan were killed as well in the strike in the Musa Qala district of Helmand, according to the statement. Twenty other Taliban leaders were killed in air strikes earlier this month by drones and Air Force A-10 Warthog jets based in...

For the first time since combat operations were declared over at the end of 2014, a battalion of 500 U.S. Army infantrymen is being sent to southern Afghanistan's volatile Helmand Province where the Taliban have made a comeback, Fox News has learned. The decision, confirmed by defense officials, is a sign of military escalation in the country even as the Obama administration tries to draw down. The battalion is meant to relieve a company of 150 soldiers, giving the U.S. Army nearly 350 more soldiers to prevent the Taliban from taking over volatile Helmand province. The Army's 2-87 infantry battalion,...

A former British stronghold in Helmand has fallen to the Taliban just 12 months after UK combat troops left the province and civilians are fleeing the nearby provincial capital, fearing insurgents will soon move on the town. The heavy fighting north west of Lashkar Gah and unravelling of security in areas UK troops fought bloody battles to secure comes days before the first anniversary of Britain’s withdrawal of combat troops from Afghanistan. The assault also comes only three weeks after the Taliban captured the northern city of Kunduz in their greatest military victory since 2001. A Western official said Lashkar...

Fall of strategic province could be 'death blow' to Afghan government WASHINGTON – A U.S. general has quietly returned to Washington to brief the White House about a Taliban surge threatening the survival of the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan as a result of the withdrawal of U.S. troops, especially from strategic Helmand province, a U.S. military intelligence source in Afghanistan told Joseph Farah’s G2Bulletin. Army Gen. John F. Campbell rushed back to Washington this week without publicity to warn the White House that the Taliban is on the verge of taking over the entire Helmand province, the source said. “I...

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban fighters seized a district headquarters in Afghanistan's Helmand province on Monday despite repeated U.S. air strikes to repel them, adding to the insurgents' recent advances in a heavily fought over region of opium farms and trade routes. Elsewhere in Helmand, a man in Afghan uniform opened fire in the former British base of Camp Bastion, killing two U.S. service personnel, before being shot and wounded. Another man in Afghan uniform was wounded in the return fire.

A Green Beret officer who was stripped of a prestigious valor award and dropped from the Special Forces fell out of favor with Army officials after the CIA shared information it gathered about him while he was going through screening for a potential job, according to officials familiar with the case. Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn was investigated by the Army Criminal Investigation Command for an undisclosed violation of the U.S. military’s rules of engagement in 2010 that resulted in the death of a known enemy fighter and bombmaker in Helmand province, Afghanistan, according to the officials. The Army closed a...

Afghanistan: President Obama's abrupt order to withdraw U.S. Marines from Helmand province with zero fanfare was an ill-fitting exit for U.S. forces after 13 years of sacrifice in the war's bloodiest theater. Is this the thanks they get? No public acknowledgment from the White House. No official statements. No praise for extraordinary dedication or heroism. No proclamations of valor. And certainly nothing about victory. Just a surprise order to abandon the two largest and most dangerous outposts of America's longest war, Camp Leatherneck and British-led Camp Bastion, side-by-side bases that at one time housed 40,000. The order came so fast...

In parts of Helmand province, the UK and the US lost more soldiers in the long Afghan war than any other Afghan area. Helmand – where the fighting was long and hard. Helmand – where so many lost limbs or were otherwise terribly mutilated in a long and now lost war by a Nato now thoroughly preoccupied with matters elsewhere. But 6 September the New York Times published an important report with the story Kabuli officials want to cover up and nobody anywhere near Nato would want to tell. They are saying more than 200 police officers and Afghan soldiers...

KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 4, 2011 – A combined Afghan and coalition security force detained a Haqqani network leader yesterday during a security operation in the Sperah district of Afghanistan’s Khost province, military officials reported. The detained leader was responsible for directing more than 250 fighters, including Uzbek foreign fighters, in attacks against Afghan government officials and soldiers. He also planned and coordinated several attacks on the Sperah District Center. In other Afghanistan operations yesterday: -- In the Baghlan-e Jadid district of Baghlan province, an Afghan and coalition force detained a Taliban facilitator and an associate. The detained facilitator is linked...

11 UK soldiers gunned down in Helmand in past three months, compared to two in the same period last year... British soldiers in Afghanistan claim that new tactics are preventing them shooting at the Taliban until they have been fired at themselves – resulting in an alarming rise in the number of casualties. ... Soldiers now say they are particularly vulnerable when they are manning checkpoints at road junctions or patrolling Taliban heartlands such as the so-called ‘green zone’, a densely vegetated river valley. One junior non-commissioned officer said: ‘When I arrived in Helmand, my officers said our tactics were...

A plucky dog called Molly spearheaded a five-day blitz by Scottish soldiers on the Taliban's tribal heartland. The five-year-old spaniel led the strike by troops of 4 Scots, The Highlanders, into one of the deadliest parts of Helmand province in Afghanistan. Molly was drafted in to sniff out booby trap bombs - the biggest killer of coalition troops - ahead of soldiers as they moved into the infamous Loy Check region of Helmand. Loy Check is notorious for heroin production and Taliban activity. Dog handler Private Charlotte Cook, 21, said: "As you can imagine, Molly, like the rest of us,...

The body of a soldier who died along with his record breaking sniffer dog in Afghanistan last week will be returned home to the UK. Lance Corporal Liam Tasker, from Kirkcaldy in Fife, was shot dead while on patrol in Helmand province. The ashes of the 26-year-old's dog Theo will be flown home on the same plane. L/Cpl Tasker, who was called a "rising star" by Army chiefs, was shot by Taliban snipers and Theo died of a seizure shortly after his master. The soldier and his 22-month-old dog had made 14 finds in five months while on the frontline.

SANGIN, Afghanistan – U.S. Marines who recently inherited this lush river valley in southern Helmand province from British forces have tossed aside their predecessor's playbook in favor of a more aggressive strategy to tame one of the most violent places in Afghanistan. U.S. commanders say success is critical in Sangin district — where British forces suffered nearly one-third of their deaths in the war — because it is the last remaining sanctuary in Helmand where the Taliban can freely process the opium and heroin that largely fund the insurgency. The district also serves as a key crossroads to funnel drugs,...

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.Cpl. Christopher J. Boyd, 22, of Palatine, Ill., died Aug. 19 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, IMarine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

A Gurkha soldier has been flown back to the UK after hacking the head off a dead Taliban commander with his ceremonial knife to prove the dead man’s identity. The private, from 1st Battalion, Royal Gurkha Rifles, was involved in a fierce firefight with insurgents in the Babaji area of central Helmand Province when the incident took place earlier this month. His unit had been told that they were seeking a ‘high value target,’ a Taliban commander, and that they must prove they had killed the right man. Deadly: A platoon of Gurkhas demonstrate their skill with their kukri knives...

HIS has been one of the deadliest weeks on record for coalition forces fighting in Afghanistan. Two Australian soldiers were killed in Tarin Kowt on Monday; seven US soldiers and one contractor were also killed. Two more US Marines died the following day in Southern Afghanistan's Helmand Province, when seven Marines were brought down by an IED blast. Two of those casualties were later confirmed to be the result of ''angels'' - the call sign for friendly KIA (Killed In Action) incidents. The remains of one of the dead Marines were unable to be located. It is assumed that he...

It became known as “the battle of Crossing Point One”. In a series of suicidal attacks late last year, hard-core Taliban fighters tried to over-run an isolated British base on the northern tip of Nad e’Ali. Had the insurgents succeeded, the victory would have been a propaganda coup par excellence, and the British mission in central Helmand could have been seriously jeopardised. For two gruelling weeks in the area of Luy Mandah, 30 soldiers fought a 360-degree battle with the Taliban in the most arduous conditions. The combat was often at close quarters where bayonets were fixed and hand grenades...

KABUL, March 8, 2010 – Operations in Helmand province will serve as a template for future operations elsewhere in Afghanistan, NATO’s senior civilian representative here said today. Ambassador Mark Sedwill, who served as British ambassador to Afghanistan, said the operation is different from others in three basic ways. The first, he said, is that from its inception, NATO’s regional commander, British Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, and his Afghan counterparts planned the operation “from the end-game backwards.” “And the end-game is the civilian delivery of governance and development,” Sedwill said. The second difference, Sedwill said, is the integration of Afghan and...

WASHINGTON, March 3, 2010 – Operation Moshtarak, now in its 18th day in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, is “progressing extraordinarily well” and is moving from the clearing phase to the holding phase, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said today. “There are still pockets where we believe there to be some Taliban hiding out, perhaps lying in wait,” he said. “We are determined to clear out those pockets, as well.” Pockets of fighting probably will continue for weeks, he added, even as signs of normalcy emerge there. Because of the operation, the Afghan government now is in control of the Helmand cities...