NAVY NEWS, MAY 2009 23
● A Chinook throws up huge clouds of dust as it drops off Royal
Marines of 42 Commando during the fi rst stage of Operation Aabi
Toorah, a month-long swipe at the Taleban
THEY ended as they began.
marines’ armoured Vikings, and accompanied by a very tenacious enemy – there has been little an intelligence picture of life in the Fish Hook,
On the front foot.
demolition experts from the Royal Engineers. respite,” he added. holding shuras – chats – with elders across 40
The last act of 3 Commando Brigade’s six-
Their aim was to search for – and destroy – any Crocodile was one of a series of operations square miles of the lush valley in the ‘green zone’
month tour of duty in Afghanistan was like their
improvised explosive devices (bombs or mines) unleashed by the Royal Marines in their final which fl anks the waterway.
first: thrusting a knife into the belly of the beast.
planted by the Taleban. month in Afghanistan, operations which ranged At the heart of the Fish Hook region is the town
Operation Ghartse Tamsa – Pashtu for crocodile
And here the enemy was less supine than it
the length and breadth of Helmand.
of Khan Neshin, a latter-day Port Royal, infamous
– was the final blow struck by the green berets of
had been around Sangin. Some of the Zulus for drugs and weapons trading and a hotbed of
45 Commando, days before they returned home
came under fire from 107mm rockets.
BY FAR the most concerted push against the
Taleban activity.
to Arbroath.
“The first one missed us by 300 or 400 metres,”
enemy was Operation Aabi Toorah – Pashtu
After a week of sizing up the area, the Royals
The men of Yankee and Zulu Companies set
said Cpl Chris Mullin of Zulu’s fire support team.
for Blue Sword – staged in Helmand’s ‘Fish
moved in by Vikings, clambering out of the steel
out into the terrain around Sangin and Gereshk,
Which is a good thing because the rockets have
Hook’ region (so called for the bends in the
beasts just outside the town, yomping the fi nal
25 miles away, determined to find – and destroy a killing radius of about 25 metres, although
Helmand River).
distance.
– enemy arms caches. shrapnel can be flung around 100 metres from
Fish Hook was terra incognita for Allied forces
They arrived in Khan Neshin at dawn and
And they did. the impact point.
whose foray this far downstream was supplied by
while the main bazaar was quickly cleared, the
FOB Inkerman and environs near Sangin had Unsurprisingly, the Royals weren’t going to just
helicopter drop.
insurgents’ labyrinthine compounds were the
come under sporadic rocket fire from insurgents. sit there and take it.
What the men did know about the Fish Hook
scenes of ferocious close-quarters fi ghting.
A helicopter drop took the men of 42 to the “We engaged with Javelin, grenade machine-
was that it was largely lawless which allowed the Commandos and Taleban traded grenades,
suspected hotbed of enemy activity north of gun and with sustained fire from our GPMG and
Taleban, the drugs and arms trades to continue lobbing them over walls at each other. The enemy
Sangin – itself once a Taleban stronghold. destroyed their firing platform,” said the non-
almost unhindered. regularly tried to ambush the British and Afghan
There the commandos found two firing commissioned officer.
More than 300 Royal Marines were fl own in troops with automatic weapons and rocket-
positions – effectively makeshift bunkers – and a “The last enemy rockets landed about ten
by Chinooks, while more commandos mustered propelled grenades.
plethora of ammunition, including mortar rounds, metres from our position. It was very lucky that
in Viking and Jackal vehicles, and 60 Afghan Two suicide bombers also tried to infl ict
rocket-propelled grenade charges, rockets and no-one was hit.” National Army soldiers joined the force – as did
carnage but were spotted by the troops; the
detonation fuses. The probing mission was, says Maj Kenny experts in Baluch and Pashtun culture to advise
fundamentalists killed only themselves as they
As Yankee returned to base, downstream on Craig, Zulu’s Officer Commanding, typical of his the troops on life in this remote region.
detonated their explosives.
the Helmand River, Zulu Company set out on men’s experiences over the past six months. They moved along a 40-mile stretch of the
The fi ghting reached its climax on the edge of
foot from FOB Gibraltar shepherded by the “The company was in constant contact with Helmand River, spending a week building up marina Continued on page 24
● Vikings roll into action during the opening stages of Opera-
tion Aabi Toorah while (centre) smoke rises over a smashed
Taleban compound and (far left) jackals on the prowl
NEW 023-025_NN_May.indd 1 23/4/09 10:53:34
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