The commanding officer of Arbroath’s 45 Commando has warned his unit against complacency, despite a drop in insurgent activity on the Afghan front line.
Afghanistan’s traditional summer fighting season has yet to materialise, which is likely due to a late opium poppy harvest occupying many local men.
The unit deployed as part of 3 Commando Brigade on Operation Herrick 14 has assumed responsibility of Combined Force Nad-e Ali South, which it will command until September.
Commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Oliver Lee said the marines are out on the ground every day in Nad-e Ali South and insurgent activity is down. He said it is not known how much of that is down to the impact of British forces in the area and how much to something as simple as a late harvest.
“The question that is as yet for me unanswered is how much is it those other factors that are outside our control that are currently suppressing insurgent activity,” he said. “Long may it continue but it’s not a time to be sure that we’re moving out of the woods. Therefore it’s not a time to show any complacency at all.”
The Taliban declared the start of a spring and summer fighting season on May 1, promising to attack military bases and government institutions as NATO prepares to hand over security to Afghan forces next month. However, in Taliban strongholds insurgents are laying down their arms to help bring in the lucrative crop, which yields the sticky opium paste used to make heroin.$300 million in profitAfghanistan provides over 90% of the world’s heroin. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime it earns the Taliban about $300 million in profit each year after being smuggled across the country’s poorly guarded borders. Troops have been warned that once the harvest is finished Taliban fighters will not only be free to pick up their weapons again but will also have cash to buy new ones.
Captain Adam Lee from 45 Commando, who is serving his second tour of Afghanistan, reckons progress is definitely being made in the region. He first deployed to Nad-e Ali South in 2009. Two years on he is back but this time it is a very different job in a very different place.
The 27-year-old from Devizes in Wiltshire is now second in command of Yankee Company, 45 Commando, located at Patrol Base Samsoor near the village of Khowshaal Kalay. His job involves co-ordinating patrols, resupplies and facilitating meetings with locals.
“Things are much better compared to when I was last here,” he said. “Then we were fighting nearly every day but now the threat both to us and the local people is much lower. People feel safer and, as a result, they’re more interested in a future of peace and stability.”
In Helmand, Captain Lee splits his time between the company’s patrol base and the headquarters of 45 Commando at Forward Operating Base Shawqat, which is an old British fort. He acknowledged that he is able to get among the locals and help find solutions to their problems.
“Satisfying the needs of the local people can be a real challenge, though, because you need to differentiate between the priority cases and the less vital ones,” he said. “Overall, though, it’s very rewarding and reassuring that things are improving it means that all those who didn’t make it home on our last tour helped to achieve something.”
During 45 Commando’s last tour in the country, which began in October 2008, 32 service personnel lives were lost. In December that year 45 Commando suffered its single largest loss of life since the Falklands campaign when three of its marines died as a result of two explosions on the same day.