US post in Afghan hamlet a 'bullet magnet'

In Chahar Qolbah, a deserted hamlet on the edge of the village of Jelawar in southern Afghanistan, U.S. 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.

Fortified camp

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 Lieutenant George Babcock said as he showed the cellar.

The inhabitants of Chahar Qolba left more than two years ago -- when then the village leader died, the Taliban moved in and the residents fled the hamlet's 30 or so houses.

"We call it the garden or the green zone, it is Taliban heaven," Lieutenant Colonel David Flynn said, adding that the area was also a stronghold of Afghan resistance during the Soviet invasion of the 1980s.

Corn and pomegranate fields stretch away from the village as far as the eye can see, giving fighters from the Islamist Taliban militia cover to approach with ease.

"It is very dense vegetation -- you can’t see any movement five meters (yards) from the road. It is a severe terrain and we need more than two hours to walk 700 meters," said Major Jeff Burrell.

"If we cut the trees we will upset the population. It is a very tricky situation."

Flynn's men come under almost non-stop attack from the Taliban about 400 meters away.

"Harassing fire"

As bullets whizz in from all directions, the post swings into action. Soldiers from the Afghan National Army open fire with heavy machine gun and mortar, making the walls of the building tremble.

"It is harassing fire, they move in a group of two to five, shoot RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades), run away and come back the day after," said Babcock.

Helicopters are called in, and the noise of their blades puts the insurgents to flight. The Taliban know they have no chance against them, the U.S. troops say.

In nearby fields, Afghan farmers wear orange armbands and their donkeys orange collars so the soldiers can identify them.

But in practice, there is no way of identifying the Taliban.

"They blend into the population, they fire at us, drop the AK (automatic rifle) and pick up a shovel, we probably run into them and we wouldn’t ever know it," said Burrell.

"If they wore Taliban T-shirts it would be easier."

As darkness fell, the battle started again. Tracer bullets tore across the sky, flares lit up the night and fell on to the cornfields.

While the Afghan soldiers fired in every direction, the snipers of the 101st Airborne scanned the horizon for their target with night-vision goggles.

"We own the night," said Babcock.