Graveyard a reminder of deadly mission in Helmand

Yorkshire Post reporter Joe Shute joins soldiers on patrol in a compound looking for devices that only recently killed a colleague.

THE graves lie side by side stretching out far across the dusty ground.

There are hundreds of individual piles of rocks, unmarked except for the odd spindly sapling bearing a torn flag fluttering in the Afghan wind.

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They serve as a tragic reminder of the violence and desperate poverty that has gripped this corner of Helmand Province for decades.

And as the soldiers boots crunch carefully between them, of the uncertain future that lies ahead.

“It’s the little ones that get me,” says Sgt Paul Barker, gesturing at a pathetically tiny cluster of rocks to our right.

Sgt Barker, of Hull, who is leading the patrol of Yorkshire soldiers through the sprawling graveyard, missed the first birthday of his now 18-month-old boy, because he was serving in Afghanistan

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“It is such a shame that they die so young because they cannot get proper medical care,” he said. “We get people coming to our checkpoints and asking for medical attention, but we only have emergency supplies.

“Walking through here, I just feel sorry for them.”

Sgt Barker and his men are out in the Babaji district in the Green Zone as part of an operation being undertaken by 1st Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment, to clear a series of compounds of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) after residents were forced out by the Taliban 15 months ago.

The community is used to the horrors of war, with villagers claiming it was the site of a massacre by the Russian Army in the 1980s that left 24 people dead.

Now, the entire area is booby-trapped with the crude handmade bombs – more than 60 have been discovered by British forces since October alone.

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In November, Private Matthew Thornton, a Territorial Army (TA) soldier from Barnsley serving with the 1st Battalion, stepped on one of the devices during a firefight in the immediate vicinity of where we are walking, setting off a huge explosion that killed him instantly.

His memory still hangs heavy over the soldiers here, many of whom were on patrol with him at the time.

We continue on to a narrow tarmac road.

Beaten up motorbikes – the vehicle of choice for those living in this deeply rural area – sporadically rattle past. One is ridden by an old man sporting a tangled beard with two women passengers covered by blue burkas. Other riders are solitary figures shrouded in blankets who glance sideways at the foreign soldiers.

Insurgents regularly use motorbikes to scout the movements of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) patrols.

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Every few hundred metres we stop, crouch on to one knee, and check the ground for signs of disturbance that could mean an IED has been freshly laid.

For Private Jack Otterburn, 23, of Linton-on-Ouse, near York, the sparse fields which he scans for bombs during the operation are also a reminder of his future.

He is looking to take over his father’s North Yorkshire farm when he returns from Afghanistan.

“My dad took the farm off his dad and it was all he had done for his entire life,” he said. “I knew I was going to take it over at some point but I wanted to see the world a bit first.

“Now I’m ready to take over the business.

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“This is my first tour and it is pretty mad out here. It is a shock to see some of the poverty but I feel I have learnt a lot.”

During the operation, four IEDS are found by the soldiers in the abandoned compounds in our location, with a specialist clearance team called in to destroy them.

The Afghan villagers begin moving back in almost instantaneously.

The next day, we head out again to attend a Shura – a traditional group meeting – with the village elders in the compounds.

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We sip green tea and nibble flatbread and sweets as the soldiers, Afghan Local Police (ALP) and villagers talk for hours about local issues such as repairing bridges, future plans for the defence of the area from the Taliban, and the suspected whereabouts of its leader Mullah Omar.

As we speak, dishevelled children scamper across the dusty compound floor still daubed in bright blue paint from the IED search teams, serving tea and pestering the soldiers for presents.

Village elders periodically walk to the edge of the circle to pray.

The Yorkshire troops are well known in this area and the youngsters tread carefully around Major Craig Powers, officer commanding support company of the 1st Battalion, and a man they refer deferentially to as, “commander”.

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“This has been fantastic progress because for the first time since I have been here, I have been able to walk into this compound,” Maj Powers said.

“Only 50m away from here, IEDS were being laid in December – it has been a big change in security.”

We shake hands and leave, pursued by dozens of children running freely across the ground.

There are not many places they can do that in this corner of Helmand Province.

And for every compound cleared, unless lasting peace is found, the piles of rocks in the graveyards will continue to grow.

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