US post in Afghan hamlet a ‘bullet magnet’ focus 09/14/2010

US post in Afghan hamlet a ‘bullet magnet’

focus

09/14/2010
CHAHAR QOLBAH — In Chahar Qolbah, a deserted hamlet on the edge of the village of Jelawar in southern Afghanistan, US paratroopers have taken over an old Taliban base and turned it into a forward combat post.

Patrol base Lugo, named after one of the soldiers’ comrades who was killed in action, is “a bullet magnet,” joked one of the men from Alpha Battery 1-320 of the 101st Airborne Division

The post is in the Arghandab Valley in the heart of Kandahar province — cradle and bastion of the Taliban insurgency.

Riddled with bullets and some of it in ruins, the building has been transformed into a fortified camp, with machine gun posts on the roof, sandbags, camouflage netting and sniper nests.

“When we moved in, we found weapons and underground medical facilities. They were treating their wounded here,” platoon commander Lt. George Babcock said as he showed the cellar..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100914com3.html