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ZHARAY DISTRICT, KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan – Soldiers with Combined Task Force Spartan’s 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment presented schoolchildren near Siab Jan with a newly-purchased playground and swing set, Nov. 4, as a gift to the children for their increased participation in school and a local literacy program.
The playground set was presented for the Eid al-Adha holiday, a holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened to provide him with a sheep— to sacrifice instead. Once the soldiers had officially opened the swing set, they said it was “mobbed” by several children who were visibly happy to receive the playground.
“The people of Siab Jan expressed sincere appreciation for the playground set, which the children immediately put to good use,” said Capt. Moises Jimenez, the commander of coalition forces in the area.
The companies in the 1-32 Infantry Battalion were scheduled to host Eid al-Adha dinners throughout the next week with their Afghan counterparts from the 3rd Brigade, 205th Afghan Army Corps, as well as presenting large meals to the Afghan security forces positioned in checkpoints along Highway 1. The coalition forces leaders said the meals were meant to express the unit’s appreciation for their friendship and dedication to the mission.
Capt. Jimenez credited the increasing relationship between Soldiers with CTF Spartan and village elders in central Zharay district, with helping decrease insurgent violence in the area.
“The trust between [village] elders and 1-32 personnel has denied insurgents the ability to freely maneuver or coerce the villages in what was once a Taliban safe haven,” said Jimenez.
Soldiers from Combined Task Force Spartan’s 2nd Battalion, 34th Armor Regiment, along with the U.S. State Department’s Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team, joined with their Afghan counterparts to celebrate the Eid al-Adha holiday, Nov. 6, at the Old British Fort located near Hutal.
Officials from the Kandahar PRT traveled to Combat Outpost Hutal to meet with Col. Dan Kinsey and Lt. Col. Christopher Kidd, the senior coalition forces’ leaders in the area, about governance development in the district. During the meeting, they discussed the schools in Maiwand district, and filling the district governor’s staff positions, many of which remain vacant.
Upon the meeting’s conclusion, the group moved to the Old British Fort, a mud-walled gigantic compound built in the late 1800s during the Battle of Maiwand, to take part in an Eid celebration lunch with local Afghan leaders from the district and security forces. The new Maiwand District Chief of Police, Sultan Mohammad, also attended.
| Date Taken: | 11.07.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 11.10.2011 06:01 |
| Story ID: | 79834 |
| Location: | KANDAHAR PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 68 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Afghan, coalition forces celebrate Eid through dinners, humanitarian aid, and new playgrounds, by CPT Kevin Sandell, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
