Troops work to secure high-profile Afghan road

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U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Phillip M. Hauser from Salina, Kan., assigned to the Counter-Improvised Explosive Device route clearance unit, patrols Highway One near the town of Maidan Shar in Wardak province, Afghanistan.


Troops work to secure high-profile Afghan road
By Denis D. Gray - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Dec 31, 2009 12:57:37 EST

MAIDAN SHAR, Afghanistan — Trucks gaily painted with hearts and doves jam up at crowded wayside bazaars. Billboards advertise cell phones and advise drivers to keep their donkeys off the road.

It’s not readily evident that this is probably the world’s most dangerous highway, a prime target for Taliban insurgents attempting to sever a vital 620-mile (1,000-kilometer) artery with ambushes, executions and roadside bombs.

Widely seen as symbolic of Afghanistan’s progress and security, or lack of it, Highway 1 suffered a dramatic increase in bomb attacks in 2009, but also a marked improvement along a critical 55-mile (90-kilometer) stretch after U.S. forces arrived in strength.

“Last year the insurgents were very successful in interdicting convoys. They can’t stage that type of attack anymore,” says Lt. Col. Kimo Gallahue, who commands a U.S. battalion guarding the highway just south of Kabul. “Since August we’ve been ripping through the enemy. Mass matters.”

The situation is starkly different as the highway veers farther south into the Taliban heartland. Overall, roadside bomb attacks have risen by more than 50 percent — from 308 in 2008 to 469 last year. But 394 were discovered before they detonated, up from 254 the previous year, according to a command spokesman, Lt. Col. Todd Vician.


Rest of article at: http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/12/ap_afghanistan_highway1_123109/