World

By Capt. Jennifer Bocanegra

AFGHANISTAN - Based on the success of Operation Jaeza, Regional Command East is running a second installment of the promotion campaign, encouraging local Afghans to use community safety call-in lines to report on weapons, improvised explosive devices, and criminals in exchange for rewards.

The goal of the program is to provide security to the people of Afghanistan by cutting down the amount of IEDs on the roadways, IED facilitators, key insurgent leaders and their weapons storage areas.

Story by Lance Cpl. Walter Marino

HELMAND PROVINCE, Islamic Republic of Afghanistan – As Route Clearance Platoon 3, 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion convoys its way through an Afghan road, young children cry and signal for food.

Some Marines patrolling alongside the vehicles begin passing out oatmeal cookies.

Although the mission of RCP-3 is to rid Helmand province, Afghanistan of IED's, the Marines of RCP3 understand winning the war in Afghanistan is about more than ridding the country of roadside bombs.

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - A joint ANA-ISAF patrol discovered 636 kilograms of ammonium nitrate after searching a building in the Nawah-ye-Barakzai District of Helmand province yesterday. The joint force detained the building owner.

The fertilizer was destroyed on site.

Ammonium nitrate based home-made explosives continue to be used in the production of IED's causing the majority of civilian and ISAF casualties in Afghanistan.

Story by Spc. Mike MacLeod

 
CAMP RAMADI, IRAQ – Five severely wounded veterans returned to Iraq just after the 2009 Christmas holiday as part of the third installment of an evolving program to help wounded warriors heal from traumatic combat injuries.

The group, consisting of amputees and severe burn victims, visited deployed paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division as part of Operation Proper Exit, a program designed to return the injured to the scene of their battlefield injuries to help them find psychological closure.

By Cpl. Joshua Murray

AL ASAD AIR BASE, Iraq – Visitors to the main gate of Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, will find a few changes as they approach the installation. When they read warning signs and twist through a serpentine blockade, it quickly becomes apparent they are approaching a traffic control point, which several days ago was nothing more than a wooden shack positioned a few feet from the road.