In Kunar tribal ties are trickiest

(c) Simon Klingert (D Company on patrol in a nearby village.)

Kunar, Afghanistan- Dog Company lives within the walls of this old Russian base appropriately named FOB Fortress. To the east is the Kunar River and the rugged passes of the Black Mountain, regularly traversed by Taliban who call themselves Black Mountain Fighters. The Pakistan border is about six miles away.

Here the bunkers are not for show. Outside every plywood hut there's a cement square fortified with a double layer of sand bags. Fortress is regularly hit by insurgent mortars launched from the overlooking mountain tops. Last month they were mortared on consecutive days before the Company installed an outpost on the nearest mountain top and the attacks slowed somewhat.

Amidst the chaos, Dog Company of 1st-32 infantry of 3-10 Mountain, has been tasked with the mission to interrupt insurgent activity along the river and border with Pakistan, known as the Dorand line. Politicians in Kabul and Islamabad may have drawn the boundaries, but to the tribes they are fluid.

"We try to stop guys from pushing men, weapons and equipment from Bajuar, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Waziristan," said Lt. Frederick Waage, the Company's Executive Officer. "We try to use the river as our front stop and focus on the larger valleys."

D Company's area of operations cover the three districts of Noor Gul, Chawkay and Narang, a series of mountainous farming villages sloping down to the river. The smaller valleys leading higher into the mountains, called "Tangys" are too dangerous for U.S. forces to enter. The Taliban controls the high ground here. They know the passages through the mountains, and have permanent safe houses within them.

The completion of MSR California, Kunar province's first functional paved road which runs from Jalabad to Asadabad, has been a boon for the local population, so much so that it hasn't been hit by a single IED, said Lt. Waage. Yet in the mountains, the Saffi and the Mamoud tribe, split between Kunar and Pakistan, rule themselves by tribal law.

The Afghan federal government has virtually no presence among the mountain people. According an interpreter "Oz" who has worked in this are for two years, they follow the law of the Five Elders. Basically, the village elders make decrees and it is passed down to the villagers as law. But in practice, who the people follow depends on who holds the most guns. During the day, it's U.S. forces. At night it's the Taliban.

"If given a choice, they would choose the Taliban," Lt. Waage said as a matter of fact, "the Taliban control the night, they are more tied to the population than we are."

Yesterday in Kalauna, a mountain village of rock huts, the groundbreaking on a coalition-funded well began. Village men took turns eagerly attacking the rough earth with pickaxes. The Company had also donated loudspeakers to the village mosque.

"We're trying to heal wounds," said Lt. Waage, "this valley is a transient point for Taliban." Last month one villager was accidentally killed and five wounded by a coalition air strike, called in after one of the platoons began taking enemy fire.

Yesterday morning, although village elders surrounded them, the platoon was told to leave the village early for their own safety. Children had spotted Taliban moving into positions on the surrounding mountain ranges.

The Afghan Army soldiers who were supposed to be in the village were nowhere to be seen. The Afghan Police (ANP) have a worse reputation. "It could be anyone working in the station that is (actually) the enemy," Oz said. "If you see a guy wearing a tribal beard and a uniform, it's showing the contradiction. If there's a large movement of enemy, the ANP won't go there."

"That's pretty much the same attitude among the people," Lt. Waage said. "Apathy. They want to be left alone to farm their land."

The coalition is banking on the villagers standing up to the men with guns. But it takes leaders stepping out. "No one is willing to commit until their friends and neighbors commit," Lt. Waage said, "If only one or two commit, they will die."

But D Company is starting to see success at organizing powerful elders through the facilitation of warlords who carry serious weight here. Trying to get them to lay down there arms has been tried before, but now they're using a "patriot", a former mujahadeen fighter famous for killing Russians to bring the tribes to the negotiating table. "We've been focusing on the tribal elders," Lt. Waage said. "The election is on the line."

"That's really what scares me," Oz said. "Last election was regional and there were attacks. This election is national. They're (insurgents) really going to push," he said. "It's going to get hot."

Or not, the "patriot" is working out a truce with the tribal elders who's sons may or may not be Taliban. It will take finagling, and hiring some men to basically ensure election security, but if the ceasefire is successful for the Aug. 20th election, it could prove to be a path on how to organize the tribes for future security.