Taliban, Marines trade fire as battle looms

[unhappycamper]

Marines from the 2nd MEB, 3rd Battalion, 10th Marines rush to set up their artillery at Belleau Wood outpost outside Marjah in Afghanistan's Helmand province Feb. 10.


Taliban, Marines trade fire as battle looms
By Alfred de Montesquiou and Christopher Torchia - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Feb 12, 2010 6:58:47 EST

NEAR MARJAH, Afghanistan — U.S. and Afghan forces have ringed the Taliban stronghold of Marjah, sealing off escape routes and setting the stage for what is being described as the biggest offensive of the nine-year war.

Taliban defenders repeatedly fired rockets and mortars Thursday at units poised in foxholes along the edge of the town, apparently trying to lure NATO forces into skirmishes before the big attack.

“They’re trying to draw us in,” said Capt. Joshua Winfrey, 30, of Tulsa, Okla., commander of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines.

Up to 1,000 militants are believed holed up in Marjah, a key Taliban logistics base and center of the lucrative opium poppy trade. But the biggest threats are likely to be the land mines and bombs hidden in the roads and fields of the farming community, 380 miles southwest of Kabul.

The precise date for the attack has been kept secret. U.S. officials have signaled for weeks they planned to seize Marjah, a town of about 80,000 people in Helmand province and the biggest community in southern Afghanistan under Taliban control.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2010/02/ap_marines_taliban_marjah_021110/

[asdjrocky]

1. All we are saying...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-NRriHlLUk

[Adsos Letter]

2. Huh. The look of the 155mm round has certainly changed over the 35 years since I last hefted one

has the "driving band" been moved down toward the base, or is that some type of RAP?

Just commenting on the photo...

on edit: hmm...the tube on that gun doesn't look large enough for a 155mm; more like 105 mm, but that LOOKS, to my memory, like a 155mm round...odd.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. Oh, Joy! Another glorious victory to be declared and the Light at the End of the Tunnel to be found

flickering somewhere.

[Mari333]

4. Vietnam, take two. suicides, death, PTSD, children dying, neverending wars

we never fucking learn.

[piratefish08]

5. carrying a big armful of 'peace'.......

warms the heart.

[Adsos Letter]

6. Again, just looking at that 155mm round...

is that a smoke shell, or WP? The coloring suggests WP, but it could also be smoke... . Also appears to be a time-fuse, judging from the color (which is prone to distortion in the photo).

If smoke, they could be using as the initial spotting round, or to deny visibility to the enemy. Same could be true for WP (the initial spotting round, in any case).

Just doesn't look, to my eye, like a standard HE round; but again, smoke is probably more useful at this point in the operation.

I dunno...just interested in the photo; no moral or political content is implied.