Securing Maiwand

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A local man stares hard at U.S. soldiers with Company C, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment, as they patrol the bazaar in the village of Hutal, Kandahar province, Afghanistan.


Securing Maiwand
By Drew Brown , Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, January 8, 2009

HUTAL, Afghanistan — U.S. soldiers were on a recent patrol in this village in Kandahar’s Maiwand district when they stopped two men in a Toyota Corolla hatchback for a routine search.

Inside the car, they found 219,000 Pakistani rupees, a couple of mobile phones and three inner tubes.

It seemed odd enough for two men to be driving around with the equivalent of $2,800 in a country where the average yearly income is around $300. The fact that the men couldn’t seem to explain where they got the money made the soldiers more suspicious.

"At first, they said it came from trading cattle," said 1st Lt. Matt Pathak, leader of 3rd Platoon, Company C, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment. "Then they said it was from selling sheep. Then they said it was from selling stuff in the bazaar. Their stories changed three or four times."

Even with the aid of an interpreter, it was impossible for the troops to tell if the two men were telling the truth or lying. The discovery of the cash, along with the other items, made troops think they might have a couple of Taliban bomb makers on their hands. Mobile phones and accessories are commonly used to trigger roadside bombs. Inner tubes can be used to make improvised pressure switches.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=59857