Fighting for Afghanistan by Sean M Maloney

Author:Sean M Maloney [Maloney, Sean M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781612513997
Publisher: Naval Institute Press

OPERATION TABER KUTEL (“AXE CHOP”), 17–21 JUNE, 2006

Corporal Neal Carswell, Captain Massoud, and I climbed into the 9-W G-Wagon for the drive up to Khakriz. It was reaching close to 110 F (high 40s C) and the drive took some time. I kept dozing off. The heat put off by the electronic gear cancelled out any benefit from the air-conditioning system. I struggled to keep awake and hydrated. Finally we bounced through the ANA checkpoint in the pass north of Arghandab and could see Khakriz in the distance.

Niner Tac arrived at the Khakriz district center late in the day. This was a new facility that replaced the one I had visited in 2005. I could see “splash” on some of the walls: the place had been under attack recently. One of the police told us via Bashir that they had been hit the other night with RPGs fired from across the road. The Niner Tac vehicles laagered next to the Khakriz gate, which was made from three large Red Army antenna pieces lashed into an arch.

Captain Massoud explained that Khakriz was a resort town for the Kandahar leadership because it was slightly cooler and away from the city and that members of the Karzai family visited here. The chief of police of Kahkriz district and the district chief greeted us. We went inside to a lavish room with couches, carpets, mirrors, and gilt décor. I wondered how the Khakriz leadership could afford it, but knew that Khakriz had a relationship with the narco trade. The police chief explained to us that they were intercepting enemy communications. The Taliban were using a repeater, though, and the chief couldn’t get a location. The enemy was complaining that they were under attack again, so the action was probably to the north, up in Oruzgan.

The police chief explained that there was criminal activity in the passes to the north and that the Taliban was retreating to the mountains north of Chenar. They were led by a Mullah Shukar, who was irritating the locals by appropriating their food. He had Punjabi fighters with him, too. The chief of police sketched out the enemy structure in Khakriz. Kari Fez Mohommad had two subcommanders and reported to Mullah Omar. They had around seventy-two foreign fighters, all told, with about four leaders for the estimated four hundred Taliban. (As usual, these estimates were high. It was probably around ten and forty, respectively.) The Khakriz enemy leadership was related to some of the Taliban leadership east of the Belly Button: Mullah Karim, Mullah Tahir, and Mullah Bul. TF ORION had nearly captured Karim, whose cell was responsible for the IEDs in and around Gumbad. This cell had killed Dave Fraser’s close protection party.

The police chief, of course, needed more vehicles, weapons, ammo, and fuel. He only had two vehicles ready to go and ten police. He had a total of eighty personnel in the district but not all had their own weapons. Only forty of these were actually police; the rest were relatives and hired guns.

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