Posted on 10/11/2009 2:47:33 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
KOTALAK, Afghanistan (AFP) – An elderly Afghan woman, her hair dyed red and a black shawl draped over her shoulders, shouts as she aims a gun at US Marines who are arresting her husband as a suspected Taliban insurgent.
A Marine points his assault rifle at her and is ready to pull the trigger until the woman drops her rusty pistol.
Members of the 2nd Battalion 3rd Marines, accompanied by Afghan soldiers, were sweeping villages for militants early this week as part of Operation Germinate.
The aim of the operation was to reduce the threat of home-made bombs -- ...(IEDs) -- hidden along the Bhuji Bhast Pass, which slices through a rocky valley in southwestern Farah province.
At least 30 villagers have been killed in the area by IEDs since the middle of this year, while dozens of Marines have sustained injuries ranging from concussion to fractures.
IEDs are the biggest killer of foreign soldiers in Afghanistan.
"It's to disrupt Taliban forces in the Bhuji Bhast Pass because within about a five-kilometre radius of here we have hit about 30 IEDs in the last five months, and that's just us," said Lieutenant Shane Harden, 29, of Germinate.
...
"(The insurgents are) not only killing American Marines but their own people. In order for this country to change they must stand up to the Taliban."
In the first two days of Operation Germinate, two IEDs were made safe and another three were found.
Back at the mud-brick compound in Kotalak -- one of a number of hostile villages lining the Bhuji Bhast Pass -- the Marines are arresting the elderly woman's husband and one-armed brother.
A search of their home turned up 15 bags of ammonium nitrate and 12 bags of sugar, common ingredients for making IEDs, as well as ammunition.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
They blew up a 12 year-old girl today with a roadside bomb, IED..
But, but, but...Our Nobrains Peas Prize winner tells us he wants the Tall-E-Bon to be our friends in the Afghan government.
so that’s why Abdul has such a sweet tooth of late.
Sad thing is, it’s almost guaranteed the woman will join the insurgents or participate in a suicide action. What else does she have left?
not much but it sounds like she has already gotten caught up in the insurgency ..
You’ve got it sort of right - after Hussein surrenders to the TallEBon and they take of Afgani’sFan, they will in exchange, form the corp of Hussein’s US Civilian Nation Defense Force, Division of Religious Police. Sweet deal, eh?
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