|
|
|
A US Army soldier assigned to C Company, 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, engages the enemy during a patrol near Combat Outpost Honaker Miracle in Kunar province, Afghanistan, on July 29, 2009. US Army photo by Evan Marcy. |
Yesterday’s ambush in the eastern Afghan province of Kunar will certainly raise additional questions about the restrictive rules of engagement (ROE). Four US Marine military advisers, eight Afghan soldiers and policemen, and an Afghan interpreter were killed after the Taliban executed a well-planned ambush in Gangigal in Kunar. Jonathan S. Landay, a reporter for McClatchy Newspapers, writes about the firefight. The Afghan and US troops were denied artillery and air support that could have suppressed the heavy Taliban fire that was raining down from the slopes.
Dashing from boulder to boulder, diving into trenches and ducking behind stone walls as the insurgents maneuvered to outflank us, we waited more than an hour for U.S. helicopters to arrive, despite earlier assurances that air cover would be five minutes away.
U.S. commanders, citing new rules to avoid civilian casualties, rejected repeated calls to unleash artillery rounds at attackers dug into the slopes and tree lines – despite being told repeatedly that they weren’t near the village.
“We are pinned down. We are running low on ammo. We have no air. We’ve lost today,” Marine Maj. Kevin Williams, 37, said through his translator to his Afghan counterpart, responding to the latter’s repeated demands for helicopters.
Read the whole thing. According to Landay, the engagement began at 5:30 AM local time. The advisers called for air and artillery support 20 minutes later, at 5:50 AM. No air was available and artillery support didn’t arrive until another 50 minutes later, at about 6:40 AM. Even then, only white phosphorus rounds were fired. Attack helicopters showed up another half hour later, at about 7:10. If Landay’s account is accurate, US police and military trainers, as well as regular military units, are going to have to swallow a bitter pill each time they step outside the gates to patrol and conduct other missions.
More from Landay’s account:
At 5:50 a.m., Army Capt. Will Swenson, of Seattle, WA, the trainer of the Afghan Border Police unit in Shakani, began calling for air support or artillery fire from a unit of the Army’s 10th Mountain Division. The responses came back: No helicopters were available.
“This is unbelievable. We have a platoon (of Afghan army) out there and we’ve got no Hotel Echo,” Swenson shouted above the din of gunfire, using the military acronym for high explosive artillery shells. “We’re pinned down.”
The insurgents were firing from inside the village and from positions in the hills immediately behind it and to either side. Judging from the angles of the ricochets, several appeared to be trying to outflank us to get better shots.
“What are you going to do?” Maj. Talib, the operations officer of the Afghan army unit, asked Maj. Williams through his translator.
“We are getting air,” Williams replied.
“What are we going to do?” Talib repeated.
“We are getting air,” Williams replied again, perhaps knowing that none was available but hoping to quiet Talib.
At 6:05 a.m., as our position was becoming increasingly tenuous, Swenson and Fabayo agreed that it was time to pull back and radioed for artillery to fire smoke rounds to mask our retreat.
“They don’t have any smoke. They only have Willy Pete,” Swenson reported, referring to white phosphorus rounds that spew smoke.
Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
7 Comments
Women & children helping insurgents. But they are all dressed as civilians in violation of the rules of war. We follow the rules and they do not. You wouldn’t think that from the media coverage around the world which would have pointed out the women and children we killed if we had dropped a bomb on them.
Methinks a bomb should be dropping there about right….now.
What I get from this story is not just the concequences of restrictive ROE, but also the increasing tactical proficiency of the Taliban. They were able to spring an ambush, deliver firepower and manuever for position with suffiecient proficiency to cause serious trouble for a force of >90 ANA/ANP/Marine.
So, were the helicopters and artillery really unavailable or just held back to protect civilians? I have to beleive the smoke was unavailable since that would not have endangered civilians. If helicopters and appropriate artillery ordanance were unavailable, why was the patrol sent out without cover?
If we are in a firefight, anything that could be usable should be available for use to on scene commanders. Whether it gets used should be a local command decision; afterall, does anyone think the Main Stream Media will praise the army for letting our troops and allies die in order to protect non-existent civilians? Of course not, so let the local commanders closest to the battle make the call. They know the whole hearts and minds strategy, give some trust in their discretion.
Incredible. These brave troops left on their own when we own the airspace and artillery. They better double the guard at headquarters because any officer or noncom with grit will be there to settle the score with the idiot who denied fire support.
Obama and Gates must be channeling Johnson and McNamara; same old song and dance. It’s sure not going to be any of them handing a folded American flag to family of these murdered Marines. That is what it basically comes down to; inept policies by bone heads in Washington equates dead US troops on the ground. Such is depraved heart murder – plain and simple. Government immunity is overrated.
You should do a in pictures presentation of lashkar al-zil’s leadership or an updated blog or featured report on them showing all units and commanders..
One of our dead was from Williamsville, NY. The Buffalo News which is the local paper reported that the family said he had asked them not to criticize the Military about anything that might happen to him; so the lack of support is going undiscussed. I wonder if any of the parents and familys will be willing to raise the issue of whether ROE led to this outcome in a manner that it has to be publically discussed and defended or corrected.