Afghan Diary: Tracking the Taleban

The sandy but beautiful Baluchi valley

The BBC's Alastair Leithead has been embedded with British troops in Afghanistan and has spent several days with the Gurkhas.

In the first of a series of reports, he describes operations against the Taleban in the south of the country, including in Uruzgan and Helmand.

DAY 1: BALUCHI VALLEY, URUZGAN

Uruzgan is stunningly beautiful, even when you're being dropped off in one of its most notorious and dangerous valleys, at midnight, by helicopter.

The roller-coaster ride into the Baluchi Valley saw us skim the trees and compounds which hug the river, climb hard and fast at the hint of trouble and have the darkness in the cabin regularly lit up by flares fired to counter the threat of surface-to-air missiles.

Finally we were drowned in sand and dust as the Chinook landed on the edge of the desert close to a compound commandeered by A Company of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Welsh, who were making their way down the valley.

It was decided the Gurkhas would have to march into position on foot, and then fight Second instalment of diary Third instalment Fourth instalment

A brief night's sleep on the compound floor, a breakfast of ration-pack biscuits and we were picked up by the Royal Gurkha Rifles who we were to be with for the next five days.

They were marching with a unit of the Afghan National Army, mentored, trained and accompanied by a Dutch soldier - frustrated by the lack of progress he'd made with a rag-tag group of soldiers who appeared to be short of food and water.

Like neighbouring Helmand, the fertile land in Uruzgan lies along the river - the rest being high, rugged mountains or barren desert.

It's this highly farmed and populated land where the Taleban are at their strongest.

The Gurkhas are marching with the Afghan National Army

The troops soon came across bunker systems and tunnels - which they destroyed with high explosives as they swept down the valley.

Uruzgan falls under the command of the Dutch and the Australians - their base just outside the provincial capital of Tarin Kowt has been attacked frequently and their patrols targeted by roadside bombs.

No foreign troops had been into the Baluchi valley, which lies just north of the capital, for 18 months - until the Gurkhas were airlifted straight into the hornet's nest.

They landed with all guns blazing a week before we joined them, but after two or three days of heavy fighting, the Taleban melted away - off into the hills or swapping their guns for shovels, their fighting for farming.

So as we walked through the ploughed fields and orchards, stepping over the streams and irrigation ditches, there was little sign of the fierce fighters who had dogged the Nato base and patrols for more than a year.

The valley is even more beautiful by day, and there was a sense of normality, with children playing, or herding animals, and locals chatting.

After strong-arm military action comes "reassurance patrols" - and as well as moving down the valley to prepare for the next stage of the operation, this was about showing people who was in control - for now.

With the rumble of Viking armoured vehicles on the other side of the valley the Gurkhas arrived at their objective for the day - another compound commandeered, for a price, from an Afghan farmer.

DAY 2: HELMAND AND BEYOND

Most of Britain's 7,500 troops are based in Helmand, but Afghanistan's six southernmost provinces are under the overall leadership of a British general.

The command rotates between the Canadians, the Dutch and the British, and as well as a headquarters in Kandahar. It also has a reserve force which can deploy wherever, whenever, and that unit is currently the 1st Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles, which we joined.

The Taleban 'melted away' on this occasion

Uruzgan has been a problem province for some time, a winter safe haven for the Taleban and an increasing danger to the Dutch and Australians based there.

The planning for Operation Spin Ghar had been going on for some time, and the Gurkhas, commanded by Lt Col Jonny Bourne, were surprised by the way their enemy had melted away.

"The Baluchi Valley is a main supply route - a key line of communication north to south, and the plan was to support the Afghan National Security Forces, deny freedom of movement for the Taleban and expand the Tarin Kowt development zone," he told me before we left.

The development zone is an area where they are trying to improve security so aid workers can operate.

The process of extending the hand of government can be helped along - by providing people with basic services.

But all the hard work may have been undone as one careless shot was fired at a civilian suspected of being an insurgent

The next stage of the Dutch-led operation was to push further south still and gain more ground.

But while troops moved slowly into position, the time was spent trying to win over the local people - all naturally suspicious of the foreign forces.

One of the Afghan translators told me the traditional and conservative people of the valley hated the presence of international troops here.

Locals are often suspicious - but the troops are helping aid get through

But the troops can give medical assistance where there is no well-stocked clinic or hospital.

A patrol had been out to advertise a temporary clinic today - an opportunity to try to help people.

A baby was brought in with a terrible facial skin rash - made worse by the powdered stone her father had rubbed in to stop the little girl scratching the sores with her sharp fingernails.

Dr Dougie Reid handed out advice and skin cream, and Capt John Alexander gave blankets or radios, toothpaste and toothbrushes, to each of those who had turned up - all part of trying to win over a hard audience.

But all the hard work may have been undone as one careless shot was fired at a civilian suspected of being an insurgent.

He was airlifted to Tarin Kowt hospital with a serious leg injury, but more damage may have been done to a community already suspicious and now angry that one of their bread-winners has been shot by the foreigners.