FOB Mirwais
Introduction
Small base, alternatively known as Forward Operating Base Mirwais and Patrol Base Mirwais (Patrouillebasis Mirwais), overlooking the town of Chora, north of Tarin Kowt.
Government sources
Minister for Defence and Keith Payne VC visit the 1st Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Force, Minister of Defence, 25 April 2009
Commanding Officer of the 1st Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Force, Lieutenant Colonel Shane Gabriel (left), escorts the Minister for Defence, the Honourable Joel Fitzgibbon MP (right), from an Australian CH47D Chinook Helicopter. The helicopter carried the Minister and his party to Forward Operating Base Mirwais, where he had a chance to take a first hand look at the Operational Mentoring and Liaison Teams operating in Oruzgan Province.
Analysis
Frontline Afghanistan: Inside the long war, Matt Brown, ABC News, 7 May 2009
The Australians are part of a provincial force scattered across a small network of about half a dozen bases running along two river valleys stretching north and north-east, from their main base Camp Holland at Tarin Kowt, up to forward operating base Mirwais in the north. The Dutch, who run overall operations in the province, have concentrated on securing the areas where most Afghans live. The Australians seem to be out at the sharper edge, probing the insurgents and pushing them back.
Frontline Afghanistan: Civilians are the real prize, Matt Brown, ABC News, 8 May 2009
At Patrol Base Mirwais Australian, Afghan and Dutch soldiers live inside an old, ochre-walled fort on a gentle rise looking out over the dusty little town of Chora and fields of opium. And until the balance shifts more profoundly in the military’s favour, it means the countryside belongs to the Taliban, as is the case outside Mirwais. It is right out on the edge of the security zone the soldiers have been trying to build. If they venture more than two kilometres up the dusty road that runs past their fort, past the local police outpost, they are outside the comfort zone and in what they call “non-permissive territory”.
See also
Updated: 21 June 2009