New base beefs up Afghanistan presence

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Soldiers from Darkhorse Company, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment prepare to move out from Forward Operating Base Ramrod, in Maiwand district, in Afghanistan's Kandahar province.


New base beefs up Afghanistan presence
By Drew Brown, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Monday, September 22, 2008

MAIWAND DISTRICT, Afghanistan — U.S. forces are beefing up their presence in southern Afghanistan, building a new base and joining a Canadian task force in an effort to stem a rising tide of violence in the heartland of the Taliban insurgency.

The construction of Forward Operating Base Ramrod, about 50 miles west of Kandahar, the former stronghold of the fundamentalist movement, puts the newly-deployed 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment in an area that has seen a sharp rise in attacks.

"This was a district that has been identified as needing a larger coalition presence," said Maj. Cale Brown, executive officer for 2-2 Infantry, during a recent visit to the new base.

In an unusual arrangement for U.S. forces, 2-2 Infantry has been placed under the command of the Canadian-led Task Force Kandahar. Canada has 2,500 soldiers in the southern province, where it has held overall security responsibility for the past three years.

But the addition of the 800 or so U.S. soldiers nearly doubles the number of combat troops in Task Force Kandahar, said Navy Lt. Alain Blondin, a spokesman for Canadian forces.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=57560