Published 06 Mar 08

Incident at Bati Kot

by T. E. Koenig
World Defense Review contributor

My son was sent to Afghanistan last year with a company of some 120 U.S. Marines trained for special operations. The unit – Fox Company, Marine Corps Special Operations Command (MARSOC) – was the first of its kind in the Marine Corps, and the Corps' first official contribution to the U.S. Special Operations Command.

One year ago this week – on the morning of Mar 4, 2007 – a platoon of these highly trained Marines was on patrol in the village of Bati Kot, near Jalalbad, when a suicide bomber driving a minivan packed with explosives rammed their Humvee convoy.

As soon as the vehicle exploded, the convoy came under enemy fire from several directions.

When the Marines returned to base, they found bullet holes in the Humvee which had suffered the brunt of the explosion. There was also a bullet lodged in the turret where the machinegunner had been positioned before being knocked down from the blast.

Twenty minutes after the attack, the media-savvy enemy began posting and broadcasting stories that the Marines had shot and killed civilians along 10 miles of Hwy 1.

Less than one week later, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Francis H. Kearney III, who at that time oversaw U.S. special operations in the Middle East, ordered the entire company of Marines out of Afghanistan.

Kearney then ordered a criminal investigation of the Marines who were attacked. Despite the testimony of the Marines who reported taking enemy fire, seeing people with weapons (and stating that no civilians were shot), Kearney took the word of the locals in Bati Kot. The locals said, 12 civilians were killed and 35 were wounded.

Kearney was quoted in the Washington Post:

"There is no evidence the Marine platoon came under small-arms fire after the bombing. We found ... no brass [ammunition casings]. We have testimony from Marines that is in conflict with unanimous testimony from civilians at the sites."

Bati Kot proved to be a haven for terrorists. The attack on Fox Company was the first of several attacks in two months. On April 8, seven Canadian soldiers were killed at the same place. American and Afghan forces shut-down a car-bomb-manufacturing network there on April 29 (Coalition troops were shot at trying to enter the militants' compound, where they found AK-47 rifles, shotguns, racks of ammunition, and material for constructing IEDs).

During a Marine Court of Inquiry held in January 2008 at Camp Lejeune, N.C., an Army explosives expert testified that a Humvee he examined had been hit by small arms fire after the suicide car bomb attack, but he later claimed to have been pressured by an Air Force colonel in charge of the investigation to alter his conclusions ... not favoring the Marines.

A lieutenant with an Army Military Police unit testified that about 125 shell casings were collected at the site, and placed in an evidence bag. They were inadvertently discarded into a fire pit and burned one week before Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents arrived to investigate the ambush.

Why was this company of highly trained Marines ordered out of Afghanistan six days after the attack and before the first finding of any facts or any recommendations from the investigating officers?

A Marine Mom wants to know.
www.afaithfulfew.com

Additional reading:

• The Taliban has The Associated Press and Reuters on speed dial
• Marines who killed civilians were attacked
• 7 NATO soldiers killed in Afghan blasts
• U.S., Afghan Troops Conduct Raids in Afghanistan
• Marines were shot at, Army expert testifies

© 2008 T. E. Koenig

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