Marines Bury Fighter With Muslim, Military Honors

In a culturally hybrid funeral service, an Afghan opposition fighter killed during the battle for Kandahar was buried here Saturday outside the U.S. Marines’ high desert compound.

The young soldier, killed by “friendly fire” when a bomb dropped by an American B-52 exploded near his position, was buried in accordance with Islamic tradition but also with full U.S. military honors.

“What we are doing is laying to rest a warrior and a patriot,” Maj. Beau Higgins said during a brief graveside service. “While this is not a man we knew or served with, we are tied together by a common goal: freedom.”

Higgins, an intelligence officer from Camp Pendleton and a Catholic lay minister, added: “None of us suffered the hardships of the Taliban regime firsthand, [but] we have all been party to the suffering that the extremes of religion have brought to our country in the form of the World Trade Center and Pentagon bombings.”

Cpl. Anis Trabelsi, a Muslim, read burial prayers from the Koran in English and Arabic. He said the soldier, “in the name of God, the most beneficent, the most merciful,” is now on his way to paradise.

Trabelsi, of Baltimore, helped position the white-shrouded body in the grave so that the head was pointing toward the Muslim holy city of Mecca.

Seven Marines provided a 21-gun salute. The fallen soldier’s family members, who did not attend the service, will receive a map showing the site of the burial and shell casings from the salute. The Marines withheld the soldier’s name because the family had not yet been notified.

The Afghan fighter died while being taken by Navy helicopter to the amphibious assault ship Peleliu in the northern Arabian Sea for emergency treatment.

He was the sixth opposition fighter to die from injuries inflicted by the B-52 bombing during what proved to be a decisive battle for the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, a Taliban stronghold that fell Friday.

The brief funeral service brought to mind references in the poetry of Rudyard Kipling to the many soldiers who have died on the windy plains and mountains of Afghanistan. It also highlighted the cultural sensitivities that face the United States and the new Afghan interim government in the post-Taliban era.

U.S. military officials have said they do not want their troops to become an occupying force in Afghanistan. However, that leaves open the question of how the United States will react if Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders avoid capture and mount a guerrilla war.

Here at Camp Rhino, the Marines are careful to avoid signs that the outpost, which serves a task force of more than 1,300 personnel, is meant as anything more than a staging area for the drive to topple the Taliban and catch Al Qaeda forces.

Shortly after U.S. forces seized the compound Nov. 26, Brig. Gen. James N. Mattis, commanding officer of Task Force 58, told reporters in a moment of exuberance that the Marines now owned a piece of Afghanistan.

Though Mattis’ comment was not meant to be taken literally, it was seen by his superiors as impolitic. Now the normally blunt-spoken Mattis is taking a lower profile with the media.

Given the country’s history of invasions by the British, Russians and others, most Afghans probably would oppose a continued U.S. military presence.

In hopes of destroying Al Qaeda’s ability to mount a guerrilla campaign, “hunter-killer” teams from Camp Rhino are scouring the countryside looking for wanted terrorist leaders.

Driving Humvees armed with TOW anti-tank missiles and 50-caliber machine guns, the Marines carry photos of Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders while monitoring the flow of refugees from Kandahar and elsewhere.

On Saturday, a spokesman at Camp Rhino said the Marines have shifted focus from the Taliban to Al Qaeda and are patrolling roads and other avenues of escape to catch terrorist leaders.

Although Al Qaeda is the top priority, “we are definitely looking for Joe Six-Pack Taliban and getting him to lay down his arms,” Capt. Stewart Upton said. “If he’s hostile in any way, he’ll die.”

Even as they eschew a permanent presence, the Marines are continuing to fortify Camp Rhino and to bring some cheer to the primitive conditions at the former Taliban compound.

Members of a helicopter squadron from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar near San Diego have installed a chin-up bar so that they can work on upper-body strength.

Navy Seabees from Gulfport, Miss., who have the daunting 24-hour-a-day task of keeping a dirt runway usable for aircraft bringing personnel and equipment, have rigged up a Christmas tree in their headquarters.

A green camouflage poncho serves as the tree, tiny Tabasco bottles are the faux lights, and strands of electrical tape are hung as wreaths.