U.S. Marines to clear airport of mines and booby traps
[looks as if the Russians are in the North (with airport) and the USA are in the South (with airport). Just declare a line midway between as the "33rd Parallel" and it will be just like old times -g- (just joking)]
myafghan.com
WITH U.S. MARINES IN AFGHANISTAN (Reuters) - Hundreds of heavily armed U.S. Marines swept into southern Afghanistan's Kandahar airport by land and air before dawn on Friday to secure the air field and its facilities.
Their first task was the dangerous job of removing mines and booby traps -- with even the bathrooms mined.
Securing the international airport -- built by the Americans in the 1960s -- will provide not only a new base for U.S. military flights to Afghanistan, but pave the way for delivering international humanitarian aid to the Afghans.
The operation, which initial reports indicated had encountered no resistance, came a week after Kandahar -- spiritual home and last stronghold of the Taliban -- fell to Afghan opposition forces who made a preliminary security sweep of the airport on Thursday.
Marines were warned of the mine threat in advance briefings.
"You can't get sloppy. You can't get lackadaisical. You'll get your ass blown off," Major Wesley Feight of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) told officers late on Thursday.
Lieutenant James Jarvis, a spokesman for the 26th MEU said the removal of explosives was due to begin at daybreak when visibility was good.
Jarvis said it was safe to assume the airport was dangerous based on the fact that the airport at Mazar-i-Sharif in the north was heavily mined and booby-trapped after the Taliban fled that city last month.
The operation to secure the airport was the biggest and most complex since the Marines landed in Afghanistan three weeks ago.
Marines are charged with clearing the airport of booby traps and mines, as well as overpowering any al-Qaeda or Taliban fighters who may still be lurking in culverts by the runway, officers said.
In classified briefings preceding the operation, Marines were warned to be on the alert for snipers and suicide bombers as they hooked north and east from the desert into Kandahar and then 20 km (12 miles) southeast to the airport.
The main land and helicopter-borne force was launched from the Afghan desert south of Kandahar at Forward Operating Base Rhino, as well as from the Bataan carrier in the Arabian Sea, officers said.
ANTENNAE UP, MINES IN SHOWERS
Clearing mines was a priority.
Lieutenant Colonel Jerome Lynes, speaking at a briefing before the Marines poured in, said, "I can replace demos (demolition explosives). I can't replace your hand.
"We're going to be very careful where we put our feet and hands," he said. "Marines live in the province of danger. That's why we're Marines. Fear has its place. It keeps your antenna up."
Navy Lieutenant Mike Runkle, an explosives ordnance technician who is helping the Marines, said U.S. military personnel had recently helped identify and tag some potential mines but much more work had to be done.
Kandahar airport fell to anti-Taliban groups allied with the United States on December 7.
"If you can spot them (mines), you've defeated them," Runkle said.
He said U.S. military officials had consulted their Russian counterparts about the explosive devices, many of which are believed to be Russian-made, before starting the operation.
Yusuf Pashtun, a spokesman for Kandahar governor Gul Agha who is a U.S. ally, said on Thursday a previous order to reopen the airport had been delayed because it was more extensively mined than first thought.
"We have lost three men there because of booby traps, there are even mines in the showers," he said. "Demining is quite a difficult and slow job. We hope we can open the airport next Thursday."
A local assistant for a French television crew was badly injured on Wednesday when he stepped on a mine.
Intelligence assessments released at a briefing on Wednesday indicated 4,000 feet (1,220 metres) of the runway were usable, enough to allow C-130 military cargo planes to land and take off.
There was major bomb crater damage on one runway, thus ruling out flights for now involving the larger C-17 and C-5 cargo planes. There was also shrapnel and debris on the runway and taxiways. |
