Mission impossible? Not for the Paras

BRITISH troops used a mixture of deception and military force to drive a massive hydroelectric turbine through the heart of Afghanistan's Helmand province, so engineers can complete a huge reconstruction project.

It was the biggest clearance operation British forces had mounted since the Second World War, and it will let the Americans finish a project they started more than 50 years ago.

At least 1,600 troops were involved in clearing the route and guarding a 200-vehicle convoy that delivered more than 100 tons of turbine to the Kajaki dam. They were backed by two US aircraft carriers' fighter jets, on constant standby off the Pakistani coast, with French aircraft also involved.

The hydroelectric station, in northern Helmand, has the potential to supply most of southern Afghanistan with electricity. But engineers have been unable to get a new turbine into it because the area is surrounded by thousands of Taleban fighters.

The turbine was too heavy to fly in by helicopter and officials said it was too dangerous to take it by road, as the tank transporters needed can move at only a few miles per hour over the rough Helmand roads.

The power station has been a source of huge embarrassment for US officials, as very little progress has been made since 2001, despite millions of dollars being poured into the project, and they piled pressure on UK forces to help them out.

Until recently, the only way they could get there was along the 611 Highway, which runs the length of Helmand's Green Zone past Lashkargah, Gereshk and Sangin. Military chiefs feared the convoy would be smashed by Taleban ambushes, which could have destroyed the precision-made machinery with one well-aimed rocket-propelled grenade.

But all that changed after elite troops from the Parachute Regiment's pathfinder platoon discovered a mountain pass that meant the convoy could avoid the worst of the hotspots.

"If we had brought it up the 611, the level of destruction we would have had to cause would not have been worth it," Lieutenant Colonel Huw Williams, the commanding officer of 3rd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, said. "Our pathfinder platoon found this route, and that's really what made it possible. We have gone from what was militarily very difficult, but politically very desirable, to militarily achievable."

The pathfinders proved the 36-wheeled tank transporters could make it through the Gorak Pass, about 15 miles south-east of Kajaki. It meant the convoy could drive through the desert from Kandahar airfield and cross into Helmand only at the last minute. The new route was code-named Route Harriet and kept top secret. The British government issued a blanket ban on all media reports linked to the operation – it was only lifted yesterday, once the turbine had arrived.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Parachute Regiment was tasked with making the stretch through Helmand safe. The convoy still had to drive through Kajaki Sofla, a insurgent safe haven to the south of the dam, laced with underground bunkers and tunnel systems, and almost completely unvisited by international forces.

The regiment's first step was to trick the Taleban into thinking it would use the 611. As hundreds of troops helicoptered into Kajaki, soldiers further down the valley, in Sangin, began clearing the road as if expecting a convoy. "We tried to look at what they were expecting – and there's only one road," Lt-Col Williams said. "We were just trying to play to their preconceived ideas."

Then at 6:30am last Tuesday, about 150 soldiers from 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment, backed by more than 400 Afghan troops and their Royal Irish mentors, pushed south out of their base, on the edge of the dam, to probe the Taleban lines.

Fighter jets, drones and a fleet of Apache helicopter gunships were already crowding the skies as the men left.

Artillery guns and two mortar lines were primed to hit known Taleban compounds to the south, while troops on nearby hilltops watched their progress through the sights of Javelin anti-tank missiles and 50-calibre machine-guns.

Moments after the troops set off, the Taleban launched missiles at the camp. One landed less than ten metres outside a compound where a company of men waited on stand-by. A second skimmed over a hilltop lookout. Both were met with what the Paras call "overwhelming force".

The Apaches opened up with Hellfire missiles and 30mm cannons, fighter jets dropped at least three 500lb bombs on a single compound. The 105mm artillery guns fired more than 160 shells and the mortars fired more than 300 rounds.

Late that night, the convoy left Kandahar. It stretched six miles and the dust trail could be seen more than 20 miles away.

There were about 400 men and 200 vehicles, including oil tankers carrying 80,000 litres of fuel, at least two sea containers full of drinking water and one with 84 spare wheels for the tank transporters. It made slow progress. "The trucks were designed to take tanks along German motorways," Lt-Col Williams said. "They are not designed to go along dusty desert tracks."

Last Thursday, about 500 Afghan troops took two key Taleban positions, linked by a complex network of tunnels, bunkers and rat runs. It took them less than 35 minutes.

Eyewitnesses said the lead soldier charged into battle with a rifle in one hand and a teapot in the other. They had been in the middle of breakfast when the order came in to advance.

The convoy arrived late on Monday night and took more than six hours to unload. It still has to make it back, and it could be more than two years before Afghans get the benefit of the new equipment.

George Wilder, the Texan engineer overseeing a Chinese company refurbishing the power plant, said the power lines needed upgrading all the way to Kandahar to handle their new load. And that's after the new turbine is installed. "We've got a year to do it," he said. "But I think we can do it in nine months."

Taleban rejected £12,500 deal for safe passage

HALFWAY through the operation, on Saturday, 30 August, British soldiers tried to cut a deal. Using local elders as go-betweens with the Taleban near Kajaki, they offered £12,500 in exchange for safe passage of the convoy.

The cash was offered as compensation for closing the local bazaar for a week. "We knew they were talking to the Taleban, but our deal was with the local elders," said Captain Steve Boardman, who led the negotiations.

The elders agreed, on the understanding the Paras would not search their compounds, nor stray more than 300 metres from the road. Hours later, intelligence reports showed insurgents had been removing and destroying roadside bombs in the road. But by morning the deal was off. "We took them the papers to sign and no-one turned up," Capt Boardman said. "I think the local Taleban agreed, but their highers in Pakistan said no."

Afghan troops used VHF radios to harangue the Taleban across no-man's-land. When one of the soldiers asked why they would not let the turbine through, the insurgent replied: "We don't need electricity. We have Islam."

Three companies of paratroopers pushed through Kajaki Sofla, stopping only to destroy a few pockets of resistance. Most of the insurgents had fled. They left behind a series of freshly-dug trench systems, linking bunkers overlooking the road.