FRIDAY FOTO (Dec. 17, 2010)

Clearing a Bomb-laced Road

(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. John M. McCall)

U.S. Marines wait in their mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP)  vehicles behind a string of bulldozers as a roadside bomb is safely detonated during a mine-clearing operation in the Sangin district in Afghanistan’s Helmand province.

The Marines, assigned to the 1st Marine Division’s 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, cleared Route 611, which was laced with the boobytraps, also known as improvised explosive devices (IEDs), during Operation called Outlaw Wrath. The hair-raising, eight-day operation cleared a crucial supply route. Because of the threat of roadside bombs, U.S. forces previously had to fly in supplies by helicopter.

CHECK BACK LATER TODAY FOR INFORMATION ON THE DECEMBER U.S. REVIEW OF AFGHAN-PAKISTAN OPERATIONS.