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| Afghanistan |
| US army uses Mullah Omar's compound to plan missions |
| 2007-02-03 |
| Osama Bin Laden built it. Taliban leader Mullah Omar lived in it. But today it's men of the US Army's Special Forces who call it home. Firebase Maholic, a sprawling and spacious compound on the outskirts of the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, is plush living by typical standards of the Special Forces, known as the Green Berets. There's plenty of serious work here. A constant roar of shooting-range gunfire bounces off a towering granite peak behind the complex. Military missions are planned here. And Special Forces soldiers recently started training 130 new Afghan recruits for the country's fledgling auxiliary police force. "The irony of this is that the home of the [Taliban's] supreme leader is being used to train forces whose mission it is to destroy the force he created," said Rusty, the team leader of a Special Forces detachment. Teams usually consist of 12 members. Rusty, like all Green Beret soldiers in the field, is not allowed to be fully identified. But soldiers here acknowledge that Omar's digs aren't a bad place to refresh in between multi-day missions conducted in the barest of conditions. The Green Berets can relax in front of a doublewide fireplace in the cafeteria, admire the three catfish in the nearby two-tier fountain or take a dip in the swimming pool - a rarity in Afghanistan. Meant to be the Taliban's presidential palace and once used as a militant training ground, the complex is big enough for a looping 8-kilometre run through the rolling hills that obscure the complex from a distance. Canadian and other elite units are also based at the complex, which was shattered by US bombs in late 2001 but has since been rebuilt. Even the food gets extra high marks. Soldiers on Sunday night enjoyed barbecue chicken and hamburgers roasted on a large outdoor grill. "Oh man, it doesn't get any better than this," said one soldier, a sergeant who's an intelligence specialist. "I've been to Afghanistan enough to know living at a firebase can't get much better." Secretive units of US Special Forces have been deployed at the compound since soon after the fall of the Taliban, and were an integral part of two Nato-led operations last fall in the province of Kandahar - the militia's former stronghold - that Nato say killed more than 500 suspected fighters. Their crests - skulls with crossed arrows - and mottos like "Pressure, Pursue, Punish" and "Free the Oppressed" adorn the compound's walls. Three eagles by the pool wear green berets. A skull in another painting has evil red eyes and a yellow and green turban. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #5 Doesn't having infidels in the 2837th holiest site in Islam cause more militants and extend the Quagmire? We need to turn this over to a local Holy Man (and his armory). |
| Posted by: Jackal 2007-02-03 20:10 |
| #4 Neener neener! Come get us! We're all asleep now! And when you get here, the food isn't even halal! Oh, the obscenity! Mohamhead would not approve! It isn't nice of the infidels for pushing your buttons like that! |
| Posted by: gorb 2007-02-03 16:18 |
| #3 In a different but similar article, it was noted that they were cooking "pork ribs" in his fireplace. And it wouldn't surprise me if those pork ribs were flown in for exactly that purpose. A friend commented that knowing the SF, they have probably chopped up Omar's prayer rug into swatches, to use for personal hygiene purposes. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-02-03 09:43 |
| #2 The obscene amenity of it all. |
| Posted by: Excalibur 2007-02-03 03:01 |
| #1 They're at the Quetta Hilton? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-02-03 00:36 |