Afghans told they can vote _ as mortar shells fly

KHAWJA JAMAL, Afghanistan — The governor had good news for the Afghans who met him here Sunday: Residents in this southern village can finally register to vote in the upcoming election.

The local Taliban’s message was less cheery: They were busy firing mortar shells at U.S. Marines trying to secure the district ahead of Thursday’s ballots for president and provincial councils.

Thus, the picture was decidedly mixed for the 150 residents who showed up for a meeting in Khawja Jamal, a village about a mile (2 kilometers) from Taliban lines in the Now Zad district of southern Helmand province, a longtime Taliban stronghold.

Simply attending the meeting meant risking Taliban retaliation.

Now Zad has witnessed intense fighting between insurgents and Marines, who are trying to cut militant supply lines, establish an Afghan government presence and establish enough security for people to vote safely in the Thursday balloting.

Helmand Gov. Gullab Mangal said he was the first Afghan government official to enter the district in three years.

He flew in on a helicopter and was accompanied at the meeting by the top U.S. Marine in Afghanistan, Brig Gen. Lawrence Nicholson. Mangal said a polling center would be established in the village — likely to be the first in the district.

“The registration people are here today, already trying to get the voters’ identities” ahead of the election, Mangal told villagers amid tight Afghan and U.S. military security measures as Cobra helicopters circled overhead.

Nicholson, who commands the 2nd Marines Expeditionary Brigade, described the meeting as “helicopter diplomacy:” ferrying in the governor so he could try to win support for operations by NATO and U.S. forces.

Nicholson also hailed the progress made by a joint Marine-Afghan army offensive on Dahaneh, a nearby village that had been occupied by militants who are gradually being forced out.

“It demonstrates for the larger campaign of the coalition forces and the Marines that the enemy is not safe anywhere,” Nicholson told The Associated Press.

Still, insurgents managed to fire six mortar shells directly at the Marines’ main Forward Operation Base in Now Zad on Sunday, the AP saw. Troops responded with over a dozen mortar shots aimed at the part of the valley under Taliban control.

The exchange occurred just as Helmand’s governor was raising the Afghan national flag on a nearby Marines’ outpost where Afghan police are meant to settle.

Gaining the trust of villagers in the opium-producing Helmand province is crucial because these ethnic Pashtun people represent the bulk of Afghans. Helmand is the Taliban’s spiritual heartland and most of the insurgents are Pashtun. The ethnic group is considered a critical voting bloc for candidates running for Afghan president.