It is still night on the morning of March 10th as kandak starts moving on the road to Tagab. At 6am, the command post (CP) takes position near the small school of Adjokheyl while the companies are deploying to the east, facing the Alah Say valley.
Around 10am, the first contact occurs: 3rd company is engaged. At once the radio net livens up. Situation reports and call for fire follow. The contact is serious and four hours of fighting are required for the unit to disengage, after eight mortar and artillery fire supports and a close air support by two F-15. An ANA soldier is wounded. Mentors of 3rd then HQ company evacuate him under enemy fire. Escorted by a protection element, the casualty evacuation armoured vehicle collects the wounded and takes him to FOB Tagab where a helicopter will evacuate him to the Bagram American hospital. The road is dreadful, night is falling, but at last the battalion aid post is reached. The man, nevertheless, is too seriously wounded and dies in the helicopter. He is the first soldier of our kandak killed in action.
Saturday, March 11th. Operation Mouje Salam carries on after some changes. The initial mission was to cordon and search the villages in which insurgents are supposed to be implanted. But the operation turns into a reconnaissance in depth of the Alah Say valley. Supported by 3rd kandak from the north, we conduct an advance to contact on the southern axis and eventually we arrive in Alah Say, the county town of the valley. Proudly in the lead, colonel ZELMAI, the kandak commanding officer, reaches the district police forces CP with his mentor. This is a real victory, since no coalition force has gone so far up the valley for almost five years. In their pick-up, Afghan soldiers strike up victory songs.
After we install a defensive layout around the built-up area, the unit begins to control the area and secure the axis. Then another kind of war begins: the one of "hearts and minds". From Wednesday, we have the first positive signs: the crowd in market increases and children say hello happily. The first unofficial exchanges occur and a kind of normal life is seen. An important meeting takes place on the 12th so that the valley, a former Taliban zone, remains under the control of the Afghan government. It is decided Afghan National Police (ANP) will relief us in place as soon as the whole valley is totally secured.
