QA’ LAT, AFGHANISTAN – A young Pashtun boy clasped his small hands around the butt of his life-like toy AK-47 rifle, pointing it at a U.S. convoy.
Another dozen school aged boys weren’t far behind. They came from the market place waving their rifles, perhaps in celebration of Eid-al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan.
“Where are they getting them from?” said 1st Lt. Donald R. Rose, with 2nd Stryker Calvary Regiment, out of Germany. “They’re fake rifles but they look real. Maybe the Taliban is giving them out.”
Private First Class Thang Ho, from Orange County California and the gunner in the Stryker, shook his head. “It’s crazy, these kids are running around pointing these toy guns. It’s just a bad situation all the way around.”
American troops are patrolling a string of dusty towns in Southern Afghanistan as part of an effort to create security ahead of parliamentary elections later this month. The patrols are also intended to disrupt Taliban forces as part of the mission to control the Kandahar region.
The convoys vary in size and duration. The one headed by Rose, of Lexington, Kentucky, was a short hop between two forward operating bases. But, given the prevalence of Taliban sympathizers, none of the missions can be called routine.
During an intelligence briefing before a convoy headed for the town of Sha Joy, near the Pakistan border, officers described 24 locations where improvised explosive devices could be expected on Afghanistan’s main thoroughfare, Highway 1.
The 100-mile stretch of rocky desert is a main striking point for insurgents in the southern provinces. Several days earlier a U.S. Stryker convoy accompanied by Afghan troops was hit by an IED. One Afghan soldier was severely wounded. Five U.S. soldiers were injured, mainly with broken bones and concussions.
The U.S.-led Coalition is preparing for the worst over the coming month. Increased attacks are expected ahead of the Afghan elections on September 18. Insurgents are expected to “try to destabilize the government to expose weakness,” a U.S. official said.
The Zabul District, with three main polling sites, is a main target for al Qaeda fighters, Pakistani Taliban and Afghan Taliban who move from safe havens in Pakistan.
U.S. and NATO troops in the Zabul province have been tasked with monitoring the movements of insurgents in this inhospitable environment and stopping them before they reach Kandahar.
It is a difficult assignment.
“Honestly, we need more troops and supplies on some of our bases and outposts in the province,” said a soldier, who asked not to be named. “In some areas we can only control a small perimeter outside the base, the rest is controlled by the Taliban.”
In the two-hour ride to Sha Joy the convoy stopped only twice. The first time was to investigate a possible buried explosive.
“We’ve got a wire here,” said a soldier. “It looks like and IED. I think there might be somebody out there too.”
The blue wire and a ragged red flag perched on the dusty rocks appeared to designate a site where insurgents planned to install an explosive, but perhaps had been interrupted.
“Everyone, back in,” yelled another soldier, after the area was searched.
Twenty minutes later on the way into Sha Joy, another young Afghan boy could be seen running in the distance with a toy AK-47 in his hands.
