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U.S., Afghan forces re-establish presence in Afghan district to drive out Taliban

Soldiers of Task Force Catamount patrol Miri, Afghanistan, on the first day of Operation Mountain Fury in Ghazni province. (Michael Abrams / S&S)

Pfc. Michael Cloutier peers through binoculars as American and Afghan soldiers try to flush out the trigger man of a roadside bomb that destroyed a Humvee on the first day of Operation Mountain Fury in Ghazni province, Afghanistan. No one was injured in the explosion. (Michael Abrams / S&S)

By Nancy Montgomery - Stars and Stripes Mideast edition

Saturday, September 16, 2006

MIRI, Afghanistan — They drove by night — more than 70 Humvees, Afghan army pickups, trucks and a mine sweeper.

Howitzers were already in place, and an air show flew overhead: a predator drone, an F-15 and two pairs of Apaches.

The convoy briefing for the 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment was brief and somber. In case of enemy contact, “We fight through, we keep moving,” instructed Capt. Bill Adams. And lastly, no one could be allowed close. There was intelligence that a suicide-bomber was looking for the convoy, bound from Forward Operating Base Sharona about 30 miles west to the Andar District in Ghazni province.

Speculation ran rampant on what might be encountered. Ten Taliban fighters? More? Would they put up a fight? Would they already be gone? The grunts joked about watching “Black Hawk Down” again and about their “Arlington or Bust” bumper stickers before heading out.

The mission was to find and rout Taliban from the district, and restore a govgovernmental presence after local officials and police had reportedly been chased from the new district center. The push was part of a countrywide offensive called Operation Mountain Fury.

“Intelligence led us to believe that this particular part of Andar was the center of gravity of the Taliban forces in the province, influencing Ghazni City,” said Lt. Col. Chris Toner, battalion commander. “It’s right near the ring road, it’s in the interior and there haven’t been a lot of coalition forces there,” Toner said. “We wanted to allow the government to come, bring Afghan security forces.”

The convoy took no fire. It did stop several times for communications checks. And it rolled into the dusty, desolate town of Miri, population 10,000, after more than seven hours, at a little after 5 a.m.

The soldiers were tired. “I detest night movements,” said Staff Sgt. Robert Rein. The townspeople just getting up looked on grimly. One elderly man hurried past a sergeant who said, “If you blow me up, I’ll kill you.”

There were no apparent Taliban in the district center, built last year by the U.S. Agency for International Development, just a dozen Afghan police.

“I’m surprised there wasn’t any [enemy] contact,” Toner said.

“Better safe than sorry,” Capt. Jeremy Secrest said.

As patrols went out into the area, searching for Taliban and intelligence, Toner met with village elders. More than 30 Afghan men, in a variety of caps and turbans, spoke in loud voices and wagged their fingers as Toner sat listening, his interpreter whispering in his ear.

“They said they needed roads, better markets,” said an American-Afghan interpreter who asked not to be named. “The colonel said, ‘Security first.’ And there was a lot of disagreement among the Afghans. It’s like 20 guys yelling back and forth.”

The townsmen, like those in most places, according to the soldiers, said there were no Taliban in their town, that they all came from elsewhere. “They’re never here. They’re always next door,” said 1st Lt. John Knox, intelligence officer.

The elders told Toner, who wanted to pay local men to clean up the place before a meeting with government and U.S. military officials, that no one would work. However, a contingent of men showed up Friday morning and started in. And a group of interpreters that went to a local restaurant for food was told they were not welcome, although a second restaurant served them.

“It’s a long process,” Toner said after the meeting with the elders. “You have to have a relationship. If they started giving names and I captured or killed some people, and then we left [there’d be retribution]. And I think they’re waiting to see what the Taliban are going to do.”

The mission to bring the provincial governor to town and leave behind more than 100 Afghan security forces was meant to both intimidate and reassure. Later that night, one U.S. Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb, but no injuries were reported.

A “show of force” included Humvees driving around the town and an A-10 Warthog that buzzed once overhead, delighting the Afghan boys in the streets.

“They got the carrot today,” Toner said of his meeting with the Afghans. “Pretty soon, they’ll be getting the stick.”

Locals try to listen in on a meeting between Lt. Col. Chris Toner and local elders in Miri, Afghanistan. (Michael Abrams / S&S>

Afghan kids watch with interest as Spc. Dustin Wagoner gets a GPS reading in Miri on the first day of Operation Mountain Fury. (Michael Abrams / S&S)

Three more IEDs discovered, turned in

By COMBINED FORCES COMMAND – AFGHANISTAN, COALITION PRESS INFORMATION CENTER - KABUL, AFGHANISTAN

Sep 15, 2006

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – Three improvised explosive devices were discovered and turned in Sept. 13 in Gayan, Khowst City and Janek-Kehl.

The first of three IEDs was discovered close to a forward operating base in Gayan District, Paktika Province by the Afghan National Army, who responded and recovered the IED without requesting coalition forces’ assistance.

The second IED was found on the side of the road approximately 30 km from Khowst City in Khowst Province by the Afghan National Police, who secured the area and defused the IED.

A local citizen reported an IED located under a bridge in Janek-khel District, Paktika Province to the ANA. The ANA located the IED and secured the area as well as detaining a possible suspect.

“With the help of the ANA, ANP and local citizens, we can secure and dispose of these harmful devices that are being used by the Taliban to kill innocent civilians,” said Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, Combined Joint Task Force-76 spokesperson. “The heroics of these individuals help ensure the safety and security of their fellow Afghans.”

Finding and destroying these treacherous weapons that endanger all Afghans is an important task. Landmines leftover from 25 years of war also pose a significant threat to Afghans. More than 20 ANA combat engineers from the 203rd Corps are participating in a three week de-mining training course here. This coalition partnership training will improve the ANA engineer’s knowledge and skills to find, remove and disarm landmines to safeguard the Afghan people.

Combined CF and IA raid busts kidnapping ring

By Multi-National Corps – Iraq PAO

Sep 15, 2006

MUQDADIYA, Iraq – Five suspected Anti-Iraqi Forces were detained and a small cache of weapons and ammunition was discovered when Iraqi Army and Coalition Forces conducted a raid on a suspected terrorist safe house north of Muqdadiya Wednesday.

Acting on recent intelligence, Soldiers from 3rd Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army Division and Soldiers from C Company, 2nd Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, Task Force Lightning detained five members of a suspected kidnapping ring. The men are suspected of performing kidnapping for money, and other terror activities in Eastern Diyala.

In addition to the detainees, the combined patrol confiscated a Mauser bolt-action rifle, a Garand rifle, one mortar base plate, two sets of body armor, 2000 rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition, a bag of ball bearings, seven cell phones, and numerous anti-CF and anti-Iraqi Security Forces propaganda.

The detainees and the cache were transported to Forward Operating Base Normandy where the detainees will be held for questioning.

2nd ID soldiers get qualified to light up the sky

Soldiers watch as a Multiple Launch Rocket System crew fire a training rocket near the northeastern edge of Gyeonggi province known as "Rocket Valley" Wednesday. (Erik Slavin / S&S)

By Erik Slavin - Stars and Stripes Pacific edition

Saturday, September 16, 2006

BOAR 1 TRAINING AREA, South Korea — In the world of multiple launch rocket systems, new responsibilities are just a seat away.

Army privates in the “13 Mike” specialty start off as drivers on the three-man crew of each tracked system vehicle, which can fire up to 12 rockets in one minute. If they perform their driving and maintenance duties well, then it won’t be long until they get the opportunity to fire the weapons that lit up the sky during the 2nd Infantry Division’s 1st Battalion, 38th Field Artillery’s qualification tests this past week.

“You get the driver ready to move over one chair as soon as they’re ready for it,” Alpha Battery gunner Sgt. Steven Lucas said Wednesday. “But a good crew should be able to take each other’s place.”

The mentoring process also has benefited from supervisors who have directed, supplied or fired rockets in combat.

“[Combat experience] helps in explaining the ‘Why are we doing this’ questions,” said crew chief Staff Sgt. Carl Lewis, who served during the 2003 opening battles in Iraq. “It put a lot of things in perspective for me.”

The crews receive data from a remote fire direction command post, where soldiers plot the impact area. They must factor in terrain, weather and enemy positions. The training rockets fly about nine miles, while the real thing flies about three times farther.

The vehicle crews are backed up by soldiers like ammunition section chief Staff Sgt. Clarence Duncan III, who also served in an MLRS vehicle in Iraq during the 2003 invasion.

His experience has helped him understand how to train the same way soldiers must fight, he said.

“In the beginning [in Iraq], it was shoot first and ask questions later,” Duncan said. “Then as the rules of engagement changed, there were a lot more safety precautions and checks.”

Safety rules still were followed at the start, Duncan said, but the war tempo meant determining whether to go ahead with a mission in less than ideal circumstances.

“I saw the purpose as far as the technicality of it,” he said. “I’m definitely able to relate to [soldiers] better [that] way … the operation applies to real world missions.”

Soldiers say that battlefield knowledge, along with more frequent practice than the required biannual qualifications, has made younger soldiers better at a quicker pace.

Pvt. Nathan Walters, an MLRS driver, has already taken part in 10 rocket fires, he said.

A few soldiers say the excitement of all the smoke and fireworks wears off, but many, even among the senior enlisted, still get a childlike kick out of the seeing the rockets fly.

“Yeah, it’s still a pretty good thrill for me to watch them,” Walters said.

Ceremony makes it official: 173rd Airborne Brigade is a combat team

On Friday members of the 173rd Airborne Brigade held a ceremony marking its official transformation to an Airborne Brigade Combat Team. (Geoff Ziezulewicz / S&S)

Col. Charles Preysler, the 173rd's commander, speaks at Friday's ceremony. (Geoff Ziezulewicz / S&S)

By Geoff Ziezulewicz - Stars and Stripes European edition

Saturday, September 16, 2006

BAMBERG, Germany — Few units are as emblematic of the Defense Department’s vision of the transformed Army as the 173rd Airborne Brigade.

The Sky Soldiers, based in Vicenza, Italy, are doubling their battalion-size units and number of soldiers, adding new and enhanced capabilities in the process, all with the goal of being the agile, independent and modular force that the Pentagon has touted as the mainstay of 21st-century warfare. The brigade will have more than 3,000 soldiers, up from about 1,500. About 60 percent of those soldiers are new arrivals.

To celebrate that change, members of the 173rd Airborne Brigade held a ceremony Friday marking its official transformation to an Airborne Brigade Combat Team

The 173rd is the only brigade in the Army that does not answer to a division, said Maj. Nick Sternberg, a unit spokesman. Members wear their brigade insignia on their shoulder, instead of the patch of a higher command.

The brigade has added cavalry and artillery battalion-size units, as well as a special troops battalion that will give the 173rd its own engineers and other positions, negating the need to borrow from other units for deployment.

“The capabilities have dramatically increased,” Col. Charles Preysler, the 173rd commander, said after the ceremony Friday in Bamberg.

In the past, the 173rd would have had to borrow units or specialized troops from elsewhere to deploy, Preysler said.

“Another unit could give you a capability, but you didn’t know them,” he said. “Now I don’t have to go to others.”

But with all the brigade’s newly acquired oomph come some logistical challenges. Most prominently, only two of the brigade’s six battalion-size units will be with headquarters at the cramped Caserma Ederle base in Italy. The other four will be based in Bamberg and Schweinfurt, for the foreseeable future, another aspect that, for better or worse, makes the brigade unique in the Army.

It would be ideal to have the whole brigade in one spot, Preysler said, but videoconferencing and e-mail alleviate some of the organizational hurdles that come with the geographic separation.

And eventually, he said, the brigade will be together in Italy. How soon that will happen is another question. Italian and U.S. officials for the past year or so have been negotiating over the use of the Italian-run Dal Molin airfield, which is near Caserme Ederle.

While geographically separated, some units have had to morph when they were reassigned under the Sky Soldiers. The 1st Infantry Division’s 1st Squadron, 4th Calvary Regiment ditched its M-1 tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles this year for more-mobile Humvees and other vehicles needed for it’s new mission with the 173rd.

Friday’s ceremony, which capped a couple of days of visiting by the commander and 173rd’s Italy-based pieces, was a chance for everyone to get together and be reminded that they’re all one brigade, Preysler said.

Being separated is nothing new to these troops, he added. That is consistent with its most recent deployment to Afghanistan, which ended earlier this year, he said.

“This is how the brigade was commanded and controlled over thousands of square miles” during the last deployment, Preysler said. “We fight this way, distributed across the battlefield.”

Baghdad to be ringed with trenches

9/16/2006 - 3:36:56

Source ::: AFP

Baghdad • Iraq said yesterday that it will ring Baghdad with trenches in a bid to restrict movements of insurgents, as more than 100 people were reported killed in sectarian attacks in the past three days.

The new security measures were spelled out yesterday by Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf. “We will surround the city with trenches,” Khalaf said. “The entry to the capital will be permitted through 28 roads as against 21 at the moment, but at the same time we will seal off dozens of other minor roads with access to Baghdad.”

He said checkpoints will be set up on the 28 roads on which access will be allowed. Another top security official said the plan was to “monitor who is coming into Baghdad and who is going out. This way we will have a better control of movements, including those of insurgents.”

Baghdad has a circumference of 80km and observers noted that an operation of this scale would take months to complete. The latest measure comes after insurgents and death squads continue to kill dozens of people daily despite a massive Iraq and US security plan — Operation Together Forward — in place since mid-June.

More than 30,000 troops are patrolling the capital’s streets to restore stability. The latest bout of communal bloodletting saw more than 100 people killed in the past three days, with their bullet-riddled corpses recovered from the streets, according to officials Friday. Pointing a finger at Shi’ite death squads, Iraq’s top Sunni leader Adnan Al Dulaimi said that “well-known militias” were behind the killings that he warned were propelling the country towards “disaster.”

US and Iraqi security officials said most of the newly recovered corpses were shot dead execution-style, with bullets to their heads and many showing signs of torture. Khalaf said that 51 bodies had been recovered in Baghdad in the past 24 hours.

The US military said one of its soldiers went missing when a suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle next to a “hardened structure” west of Baghdad.

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Gulf%2C+Middle+East+%26+Africa&month=September2006&file=World_News2006091633656.xml

Muslim anger over papal comments grows

By BENJAMIN HARVEY - Associated Press Writer

Sept. 15, 2006 - 9:31PM

ISTANBUL, Turkey — Pakistan's legislature unanimously condemned Pope Benedict XVI. Lebanon's top Shiite cleric demanded an apology. And in Turkey, the ruling party likened the pontiff to Hitler and Mussolini and accused him of reviving the mentality of the Crusades.

Across the Islamic world Friday, Benedict's remarks on Islam and jihad in a speech in Germany unleashed a torrent of rage that many fear could burst into violent protests like those that followed publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

By citing an obscure Medieval text that characterizes some of the teachings of Islam's founder as "evil and inhuman," Benedict inflamed Muslim passions and aggravated fears of a new outbreak of anti-Western protests.

The last outpouring of Islamic anger at the West came in February over the prophet cartoons first published in a Danish newspaper. The drawings sparked protests _ some of them deadly _ in almost every Muslim nation in the world.

Some experts said the perceived provocation by the spiritual leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics could leave even deeper scars.

"The declarations from the pope are more dangerous than the cartoons, because they come from the most important Christian authority in the world _ the cartoons just came from an artist," said Diaa Rashwan, an analyst in Cairo, Egypt, who studies Islamic militancy.

On Friday, Pakistan's parliament adopted a resolution condemning Benedict for making what it called "derogatory" comments about Islam, and seeking an apology. Hours later, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry summoned the Vatican's ambassador to express regret over the pope's remarks Tuesday.

Notably, the strongest denunciations came from Turkey _ a moderate democracy seeking European Union membership where Benedict is scheduled to visit in November as his first trip as pope to a Muslim country.

Salih Kapusuz, deputy leader of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted party, said Benedict's remarks were either "the result of pitiful ignorance" about Islam and its prophet or, worse, a deliberate distortion.

"He has a dark mentality that comes from the darkness of the Middle Ages. He is a poor thing that has not benefited from the spirit of reform in the Christian world," Kapusuz told Turkish state media. "It looks like an effort to revive the mentality of the Crusades."

"Benedict, the author of such unfortunate and insolent remarks, is going down in history for his words," Kapusuz added. "He is going down in history in the same category as leaders such as Hitler and Mussolini."

Even Turkey's staunchly pro-secular opposition party demanded the pope apologize before his visit. Another party led a demonstration outside Ankara's largest mosque, and a group of about 50 people placed a black wreath outside the Vatican's diplomatic mission.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said the pope should explain and "tell us what exactly did he mean. ... It can't just be left like that."

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi has tried to defuse anger, saying the pope did not intend to offend Muslim sensibilities and insisting Benedict respects Islam. In Pakistan, the Vatican envoy voiced regret at "the hurt caused to Muslims."

But Muslim leaders said outreach efforts by papal emissaries were not enough.

"We do not accept the apology through Vatican channels ... and ask him (Benedict) to offer a personal apology _ not through his officials," Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, Lebanon's most senior Shiite cleric, told worshippers in Beirut.

Rashwan, the analyst, feared the official condemnations could be followed by widespread popular protests. Already there had been scattered demonstrations in several Muslim countries.

"What we have right now are public reactions to the pope's comments from political and religious figures, but I'm not optimistic concerning the reaction from the general public, especially since we have no correction from the Vatican," Rashwan said.

About 2,000 Palestinians angrily protested Friday night in Gaza City. Earlier, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, of the Islamic militant group Hamas, said the pope had offended Muslims everywhere.

In Cairo, some 100 demonstrators stood outside the al-Azhar mosque chanting: "Oh Crusaders, oh cowards! Down with the pope!"

The pope quoted from a book recounting a conversation between 14th-century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II and a Persian scholar on the truths of Christianity and Islam.

"The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war," Benedict said. "He said, I quote, 'Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.'"

The pope did not explicitly agree with nor repudiate the comment.

In Britain, the head of the Muslim Council, a body representing 400 Muslim groups, said the emperor's views quoted by the pope were bigoted.

"One would expect a religious leader such as the pope to act and speak with responsibility and repudiate the Byzantine emperor's views in the interests of truth and harmonious relations between the followers of Islam and Catholicism," said Muhammad Abdul Bari, the council's secretary-general.

Many Muslims accused Benedict of seeking to promote Judeo-Christian dominance over Islam.

Even Iraq's often divided Shiite and Sunni Arabs found unity in their anger over the remarks, with clerics from both communities criticizing Benedict.

"The pope and Vatican proved to be Zionists and that they are far from Christianity, which does not differ from Islam. Both religions call for forgiveness, love and brotherhood," Shiite cleric Sheik Abdul-Kareem al-Ghazi said during a sermon in Iraq's second-largest city, Basra.

Few in Turkey, especially, failed to pick up on Benedict's reference to Istanbul as Constantinople _ the city's name more than 500 years ago _ before it was conquered by Muslim Ottoman Turks.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel defended the German-born pope, saying his message had been misunderstood.

"It is an invitation to dialogue between religions and the pope has explicitly urged this dialogue, which I also endorse and see as urgently necessary," she said Friday. "What Benedict XVI makes clear is a decisive and uncompromising rejection of any use of violence in the name of religion."

In the United States, a Muslim group, the Council for American-Islamic Relations, asked for a meeting with a Vatican representative and urged more efforts at improving understanding between Muslims and Catholics.

"The proper response to the pope's inaccurate and divisive remarks is for Muslims and Catholics worldwide to increase dialogue and outreach efforts aimed at building better relations between Christianity and Islam," the group said.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4191054.html