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Coalition firing range in Afghanistan was al-Qaida training camp
By Jason Chudy, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Tuesday, March 23, 2004
KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — For many years, the nearby Tarnak Farms site has echoed with the sound of gunfire.
While it is now a firing range used by coalition forces, it was once a Taliban and al-Qaida training camp. A camp, U.S. officials have said, that Osama bin Laden most likely visited in October 2000.
Soldiers, naturally, prefer its current owners.
“When you’re out there and see it, you think about it for a second: ‘Whoa, this used to be an al-Qaida training camp,’” said Master Sgt. Edward Martin, noncommissioned officer in charge of the 10th Mountain Division’s S3 section, which includes operations and training.
“It used to be theirs, and now we own it with the Afghan National Army. If you go back and look at it, it’s pretty awesome.”
“I think it’s great,” said Spc. Dan Provitola of the 10th Mountain Division’s Long Range Surveillance Detachment. “It’s pretty cool, the fact that we’ve blown it to [pieces] and we use it as a range.”
The site, which housed about 75 small buildings, is now nothing more than beige-colored rubble. Al-Qaida reportedly used it in small-unit combat operations. Coalition forces use it for some similar purposes, but don’t use the destroyed buildings for urban warfare training.
“I’d say we use it a minimum of five or six times a week, if ammunition is available,” said Sgt. Maj. Brad Pirmantgen, Task Force Warrior’s operations sergeant major. Kandahar units wanting to use the range can reserve it through his office.
Romanian soldiers from the 280th Infantry Battalion use the range once a week. They traveled the few miles from the Kandahar base Friday morning, arriving as a small U.S. unit prepared to detonate about 200 pounds of explosives and old ammunition.
After the blast, the Romanians practiced a small squad drill in which they walked parallel to the firing line and then responded as if they were taking fire.
The Romanians fired toward the “enemy” and then slowly disengaged. Some of the troops continued firing as other backed away, they then switched positions with the original group of shooters pulling back and the others taking up firing.
During their remaining few hours at Tarnak Farms the Romanians fired a wide range of weapons, including small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and 82 mm mortars.
Tarnak Farms was captured from Taliban forces in January 2002 and has been used by coalition forces ever since.
The site also has the unfortunate distinction of being the location of a friendly-fire incident on April 17, 2002, in which a U.S. F-16 dropped a 500-pound bomb on Canadian troops practicing at the range. Four Canadian soldiers were killed and eight wounded.