Marine operation brings Now Zad back to life

Richard Tomkins:

A rebirth of Now Zad is taking place just two weeks after U.S. Marines dislodged extremist Taliban from this northwestern portion of Helmand Province, but it’s also occurring under the very real threat of enemy retaliation.

In Now Zad town, once the second-largest population center in Helmand, hundreds of displaced residents are returning daily from outlying villages to clear away rubble and debris.

Hundreds of children each day are attending a school started by Afghan-American interpreters.

And all of this is being done in defiance of Taliban threats.

And women, confined by practicality as well as custom to outlying villages, are receiving long-deferred health care from mobile U.S. medical teams with female nurses and corpsman.

Meanwhile, troops from the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, are establishing new outposts in the desert countryside beyond the town itself to keep the Taliban at bay. The outposts are near some of the 14 villages in the district to allow daily patrols and interaction with the people to establish personal relationships and gain intelligence to thwart or counter any Taliban activity in the areas.

“The more this place improves the madder they (the Taliban) are going to get,” said 1st Lt. John Pickup, of Lima Company. “They’ve lost face with the people. I wouldn’t be surprised if some bodies (of cooperative villagers) started turning up soon.”

Added Lt. Col. Martin Wetterauer, commander of 3-4 in Now Zad: “There’s no doubt there are a few Taliban walking the streets right now, trying to get an assessment of what’s going on and how they can counter it."

“We know the Taliban will try to do something once they get re-organized and re-supplied supplied,” Wetterauer said. “We have to stay ahead of them.”

...

Before Operation Cobra's Anger Now Zad was a ghost town with a few Taliban trouble makers. Its former population was around 30,000. But that is what the Taliban can do to an area if they are not contained and destroyed.

The outposts and patrols will make it difficult for the Taliban to return in force without detection and the risk of destruction. They are fundamental tactics of a counterinsurgency operation.