The top American general in Afghanistan has expelled a U.S. Marine special operations company for the way the men responded to an ambush March 4, Marine sources said.
Maj. Cliff Gilmore, a spokesman for Marine Special Operations Command, confirmed to The Examiner that the company of 120 Marines is redeploying.
He said the decision followed an ambush on the company’s convoy by a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device. A second Marine source said the Marines retaliated and some civilians were killed.
The action brought an abrupt end to what promised to be a historic deployment. The unit sailed in January from Camp Lejeune, N.C., as the first Marine Corps special operations company sent overseas. The Corps joined U.S. Special Operations Command a year ago.
The company is now redeploying to Kuwait after just a few weeks in Afghanistan in what was supposed to be a six-month tour.
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A Marine officer assigned to special operations said Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, the top U.S. commander, took the extraordinary step of expelling the unit after he consulted with Afghan Prime Minister Hamid Karzai.
A spokesman for Eikenberry could not be reached today.
Gilmore said, “The unit responded to the ambush and the local population perceptions of that response have damaged the relationship between the local population and the Marine special operations company.”
Read other stories by Rowan Scarborough.
