16 June 2006

U.S. military erects Afghan desert base

By Jason Straziuso
The Associated Press, 16 June 2006

A week ago, this spot of land outside the village of Musa Qala was nothing but a barren, dusty patch of desert, seemingly devoid of value.

By Thursday it was a bustling outpost protected by 105 mm howitzers, sniper riflemen and a growing wall of sand — a U.S. base erected in the middle of nowhere to support an offensive against the Taliban in Afghanistan's volatile south.

The sand here is so fine it blows everywhere and covers everything. A nonstop wind cakes soldiers in dust, and the daily temperature nears 110 degrees.

Sgt. Ryan McIntosh's opinion of his new home is in line with most of the soldiers' here.

"Think of the worst place you can think of and times that by 50," said McIntosh, a heavy equipment adviser from Delta, Ohio.

Lt. Col. Chris Toner, the commanding officer, said the base will house supplies — food, fuel and ammunition — to help support Operation Mountain Thrust, a new offensive against Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan.

"I've got everything I need here to conduct sustained operations," he said.

The outpost is 180 miles from the nearest permanent base in Kandahar, a huge distance, Toner said. It's about 5 miles outside Musa Qala, a small village in northern Helmand province where Taliban fighters have been active.

The distance "is very extreme, but it allows me to operate out of here and extend my reach," he said.

Toner said there's no doubt that Taliban fighters are watching the base. Howitzer cannons fire rounds into the desert night — harassment fire, in military terms.

"We're just knocking on the door," said Staff Sgt. D.L. Stewart, part of the team that loads up the guns. "We haven't used our full power yet. That's down the road."

There is a surgeon in the small first aid tent, and a makeshift kitchen prepares breakfast and dinner. But there is no running water, and soldiers slept under the stars for the first couple of days here, covering themselves in sleeping bags to hide from the blowing sand.

More than a dozen Humvees ring the camp's exterior, providing a security cordon until soldiers finish building an 8-foot-high wall of sand around the camp.

The base is surrounded by miles of flat desert interrupted by rocky mountain peaks. A patrol of 11 Humvees scouted a peak only a couple of miles from the base earlier this week that could be used as high ground by militant fighters.

The patrol wound its way through dry riverbeds and desert plains, broken only by the occasional mudbrick home. The soldiers waved to the locals, and although many wave back in other parts of the country, they did not here.

Halfway around the mountain, someone spots what appears to be a manmade cave, perhaps 500 feet up the 1,600-foot mountain.

Before Lt. Will Felder, the platoon leader, hikes up the hill with five soldiers, he makes a prediction of what they'll find: "Probably nothing."

The soldiers, weighed down by more than 50 pounds of gear, hike up the steep, rocky ledges until they find the "cave" — a dark spot of rock hidden among shadows.

"It was a waste of time," Felder says on the way down. "Unfortunately, the thing is, if there had been someone in there, they could pretty much see the entire valley, which is our approach to base camp."

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Citation: Jason Straziuso. "U.S. military erects Afghan desert base," The Associated Press, 16 June 2006.
Original URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060616/ap_on_re_as/afghan_desert_base
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