witness - battlefield dead haunt u.s. marines and afghans alike

Golnar Motevalli, a Reuters reporter, has been stationed in Kabul since November 2008.
She reported on war, Afghan politics and women\'s rights.
Before moving to Afghanistan, Gunnar worked for Reuters in her hometown of London.
Last month, she was in the Marjah district. S.
Afghan forces have carried out eight biggest attacks against the Taliban. year-old war.
In the following story, Golnar wrote that Afghan civilians and soldiers were scarred by the deaths around them.
By Golnar Motevalli MARJAH, AfghanistanReuters)-
Before the Taliban bullet that penetrated his heart ended his life, Corporal Jacob tulbet made a painful groan.
The medical staff lifted out of the pile of dirt he was standing in tulbert, where the bullets shot and entered his chest, placing him on a dusty ground in an Afghan home, frantically trying to revive himAbove them T-
Shirts and wool sweaters on the wash line float in the breeze.
That was February 13, later in the morning.
A few hours ago, I landed in a helicopter in the dark Marja muddy land, last month\'s large US military. S. -
Military attacks in southern Afghanistan are underway.
Over time, a few hundred metres away bullet exploded, and the First and Sixth Battalion\'s Bravo troops were locked in a fierce gun battle.
In the first few days of America\'s fight to regain the initiative in eight months
I will witness this year\'s Taliban war. S.
Both Marines and Afghan civilians are facing death.
Shortly after landing in Marjah, a line of Marines took over Turbett\'s now dying House.
The chicken ran around on the ground of the mud-brick residence, while pecking on the floor, the bullets overhead passed through the air.
While tulbert struggled to breathe, the Afghan family, who owned the house, sat in silence and hid --
In one of their small rooms, there was a man dying a few feet away.
The Marines told their families through translation that they needed to use their home as a temporary command post.
With the Marines focused on rescuing their colleagues, the gunfire weakened slightly.
Then a toddler made a cry from the room at home.
In the end, a little girl in a pink dress came out from behind a rickety wooden door with dirty black curtains on it, and her dry, bearded father grabbed her hand,
The girl returned to the room and did not notice the battle that Tubert had lost for his life.
After a while, 21-year-
The old man from Canton, Michigan died.
Doctor David Walden stood up and walked away.
When the child cried from the room, Varden cried silently outside.
His cheeks were full of tears, shining in the afternoon sun.
His eyes were hidden behind the ballistic sunglasses.
Walden and Turbett don\'t know each other.
That fact makes his death even more unbearable, Walden said. “I was angry.
I think it\'s because it\'s probably my first casualty, he\'s really dead, I don\'t know him.
\"First, hope is the last,\" Walden said later . \".
\"There was blood in his mouth.
We put a needle in his chest to decompress the side without rising, but all that came out was blood. S.
Navy Lieutenant Justin Wepner, a doctor in Fredericksburg, Virginia, leads the medical staff.
Friends of Turbett were given a few minutes to digest the news before being told to return to the outside to restart the battle.
Turbett\'s squad, who has joined the First Battalion of the Sixth Marine Corps\'s Bravo Company, sat silently as Weppner told them what was going on. “I fell apart.
I haven\'t cried like this since I was a child. . .
You know it\'s going to happen to someone, you just don\'t expect it to happen to someone around you, \"said Corporal Lance Robert Debb, 27. year-
Old man from Meyers, Georgia.
\"Whenever I think of it, I see his wife, and before we leave she says \'Look at him and take care of him \'.
So even as a friend, I feel like I have failed. year-
Old Private First Class Kevin horstell from Fort North Florida is another teammate of Tourt.
The gunfight on the edge of Koru Chareh village lasted at least six hours.
After the Harrier jet was asked to \"shoot-out\" the Taliban\'s combat positions, it failed.
The plane roared through the air, sending out a loud bullet.
It\'s time to move out.
Turbett\'s body is pulled up by a black plastic body bag
\"We put them in our bags.
\"We don\'t like to show it to the Marines, they think it\'s a bad sign,\" said Dr. Joseph hadbeck . \"
The helicopter floated out of Marjah.
Then run along a canal to escape the rebel attack.
They arrived at their destination, right behind another row: an eight-bedroom building made of gray concrete blocks, with high arched ceilings, surrounded by iconic low-rise buildings
Mud brick walls in rural Afghanistan.
The fierce exchange of fire against Navy snipers on the roof of the building lasted three days.
The Taliban fired a mortar that landed in one of the yards but collapsed due to the impact.
They also tried their luck with rockets.
Grenades, only 200 above the building.
A few days later, Bravo received news of the first civilian casualties caused by the fighting.
They don\'t know if it was a Taliban rocket or if their own rocket destroyed the homes of 70 people. year-
Like many Afghans, old Abdul Kalem has only one name.
They went to the fair in Koru Chareh, where the fruit and vegetable shops had been abandoned;
Tomatoes and onions rot in the sun.
With tears in his eyes, Abdelkareem lifted the edge of a light blue fabric from her daughter\'s body, revealing the bodies of her three children --
The baby, a week old, hid beside her.
The other two bodies, members of the Abdel Calem family, were tied under the rest of the sheets.
When the rocket hit his home, his son, Abdelbaki, ran out in the direction of the Marine Corps and shouted for help.
The father and son were placed in an empty shop in the market, while the bodies of their dead family were stored in another shop next door.
They said all they wanted was to go to the provincial capital, their ancestral religious army, and bury the dead in a family cemetery with their relatives.
Abdelbaki told a small team in the United States: \"I feel heartache from yesterday\'s sadness, and I am also very painful . \"S.
As he sat next to his father, the Marines passed their interpreter, and his father was wearing a big sheep blanket.
The Marines apologized to him for his loss and said they would do everything they could to help him and his family bury the dead.
They handed him a large bundle of cash.
Abdelbaki thanked them and begged to hand over the body to the pious army.
About a week later, local residents slowly returned to the market in Koru Chareh.
Since the beginning of the operation, the first prayer has been sent from the mosque.
Abdelbaki has never been to the religious army.
The Marines found him an abandoned white man.
But he did not know how to drive the truck.
He buried his dead family in Marjah.