Globs of rain spat from the slate sky as Echo Company trundled out of the base gates and into the Pech Valley. The supply convoy had dropped early Christmas mail and fresh artillery shells to troops at Camp Blessing, the American base at the end of the steep-walled valley. Now it was heading home.
Shopkeepers stared and children smiled as the six heavily armoured vehicles moved down the greasy road. But just after one village the crowds seemed to vanish. Then a violent rattle shook the air.
”Enemy contact!” yelled Sergeant Thomas Splett (26) kicking his door open. More bullets cracked overhead as the convoy shuddered to a halt. Leaping out, the US soldiers hunkered behind their trucks and returned fire; soon the valley was echoing with thunderous gunfire.
The attackers were behind boulders and trees on a ridge across the river, 800m away. The Americans, trapped against a cliff face, could only aim for the muzzle flashes. On the Humvee turret Sergeant Splett’s gunner cursed loudly — his machine gun had jammed. He grabbed a rifle and continued shooting. Sergeant Splett called for cover and sprinted to the next vehicle. A rocket-propelled grenade whooshed past, exploding against the rocks.
The fighting fizzled after about 30 minutes. The attack stopped just as a stream of US mortars pounded the ridgeline. The convoy inched forward again as a mob of small children swarmed on to the road, scooping up empty bullet cases that local brass merchants buy for about $1 a box.
After a few kilometres the pumped-up soldiers stopped to check for injuries — incredibly there were none — and to exchange high-fives and handshakes. Night was coming and with it an ominous report: a freshly planted roadside bomb lay somewhere ahead. The chatter died down and the convoy pressed ahead.
With the drivers guided only by night vision goggles, the vehicles moved at just 16kph. ”I’ve been to Iraq so I knew Afghanistan was going to be tough, but honestly I didn’t think it would be this tough,” said Sergeant Splett. ”A lot of people don’t know there’s a war still going on here.”
News from southern Afghanistan, where British, Canadian and Dutch troops are battling a resurgent Taliban, has hogged headlines in Afghanistan this year.
On Sunday, three British Royal Marine commandos were injured in a suicide attack in Kandahar. But in the mountain-studded east, US troops are quietly battling on a second, some say forgotten, front.
Kunar province has long been one of the most lawless parts of Afghanistan. With its labyrinth of jagged valleys and stout links with Wahhabi Islam, it is considered a likely refuge for Osama bin Laden and his cohorts. Last January a US drone targeted the al-Qaeda number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, bombing a house in Pakistan’s Bajaur tribal agency, just six kilometres from Kunar.
An amorphous group centred on al-Qaeda fuels the insurgency. Foreigners — including Arabs, Chechens and Uzbeks — bring money and technical expertise in, for example, bomb making. Local commanders provide the gunmen. The renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is a key figure. A CIA favourite during the anti-Soviet struggle of the 1980s, he has since become an implacable foe of the US. Several US officers say he recruits fighters at a madrasa and the Shamshatoo refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan.
Gruelling mountain marches, extreme temperature swings and dogged battles make Kunar the most physically punishing war for US troops since Vietnam. The Guardian joined one patrol that had walked 28 days, each man lugging a 40kg backpack. Several soldiers said they preferred their previous deployment, in Fallujah, Iraq, because conditions were better there.
Money and videos play a large role in the fight. Locals recruited to target Americans must produce footage to ensure payment, said several officers and local officials. Survivors have the strange experience of watching attempts on their lives. Last April Lieutenant Brian Farrell drove over a roadside bomb that destroyed his Humvee truck. He escaped with a light wound but two months later relived the attack through the internet.
”I never wanted to be famous,” quipped the fresh-faced 25-year-old, whose comrades poke fun about his ”movie stardom”.
But the joke is short-lived. Lieutenant Farrell’s regiment has suffered 156 casualties, including 19 deaths, since it deployed last March. Lieutenant Farrell’s own platoon counts two dead and six wounded.
Despite the high cost, US commanders insist they are winning the Kunar war, valley by valley. The military credits generous development aid for their apparent success. A regraded road, hydroelectric schemes in seven villages and new bridges had turned hearts and minds, said Major JP Guerin of the civil-military Provincial Reconstruction Team. ”Now we get people — not just intelligence sources — walking up to the base saying, ‘Hey, there’s a guy over there with a bomb’,” he said.
Ironically, the US military recently refurbished a mosque beside Camp Blessing that was built by Abu Ikhlass, an Egyptian al-Qaeda militant they are hunting in the surrounding hills.
To help persuade the tribes to abandon militancy for good, the Americans are supporting Muhammad Rahman, the dynamic 29-year-old district governor, who pushes hard to build consensus through old-style shuras, or meetings.
Still, the fragile stability is firmly underwritten by an iron-fisted military presence — hundreds of soldiers, three patrol bases and four howitzer guns — two parked at either end of the Pech Valley.
As Echo Company arrived safely in the provincial capital, Asadabad, on Saturday night, soldiers snorted impatiently at the idea of a ”green zone”. ”Let’s face it, we are in the insurgents’ backyard, and they are determined not to leave,” said Sergeant Steve, an intelligence official.
Secondly, he said, it was tough to know friend from foe: ”With Pashtunwali [the Pashtun code of honour] you can go into someone’s house, they will serve you tea and be terribly cordial to you. Then you walk out the door and they’re cursing your name and calling their insurgent buddies. It’s very hard to tell who’s with you and who’s not.” – Guardian Unlimited Â