The New York Times reports that enemy snipers have replaced Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) as threat number one for U.S. troops attempting to “sanitize” Marjah Afghanistan. “Five Marines and two Afghan soldiers have been struck here in recent days by bullets fired at long range. That includes one Marine fatally shot and two others wounded in the opening hour of a four-hour clash on Wednesday, when a platoon with Company K of the Third Battalion, Sixth Marines, was ambushed while moving on foot across a barren expanse of flat ground between the clusters of low-slung mud buildings.” I’m no military expert (I just play one on the Internet), but one wonders if the campaign’s very public announcement—designed to win hearts and minds by allowing “good” Afghans to leave the area before the offensive—gave enemy combatants too much time to plan ambushes and establish sniper redoubts. The Times doesn’t raise the point, but it does provide a picture of fear followed by overwhelming force. Tactical descriptions after the jump.
