Stabilisation in Afghanistan: winning the population from the insurgent

It is often said that in a counter-insurgency campaign ‘the people are the prize’ and it is this mantra that perhaps best describes the driving force behind the Military Stabilisation Support Group – or MSSG. Report by Tristan Kelly.

A Grenadier Guards Battle Group foot patrol in the bazaar area of Shawzad, Helmand province, along with elements of a Military Stabilisation Support Team
Picture: SSgt Mark Jones
Crown Copyright/MOD 2010

The MSSG is based in Gibraltar Barracks, Camberley, and is led by Colonel (soon to be Brigadier) Greville Bibby. He is an expert in stabilisation who was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for his work as deputy commander of both the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) and Task Force Helmand in 2009.

Colonel Bibby explained why the MSSG is working in Afghanistan:

“In terms of trying to provide security to what is a very volatile and insecure situation, we are operating amongst people. We are operating in a province that is fully populated by people with both large and small communities, all very closely linked by roads, canals and rivers and the rest.

“So we are trying to secure the population because that is what it comes down to. Because an insurgent, his fighting ground, his battlefield, is the population.

“It is all about influencing the population and using the population to his own ends and therefore it is not as straight forward as killing the insurgent, it is much more complex than that, it is about outwitting and out-influencing the insurgent.”

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Portraits of bravery: The Commanding Officer

As Armed Forces Day approaches, Lieutenant Colonel Roly Walker, commanding officer of the Grenadier Guards battle group, describes a lucky escape to The Sunday Telegraph.

By Sean Rayment, Daily Telegraph

Lieutenant Colonel Roly Walker

"When the IED detonated, I knew immediately what it was. There was a loud, elongated pop, a lot of dust and the vehicle was thrown about six feet into the air," says Lieutenant Colonel Roly Walker, the commanding officer of the Grenadier Guards battle group.

"The vehicle landed in such a way that I thought we were about to roll but we didn't. Nobody was hurt, we were all wearing helmets and body armour at the time but it's a pretty unnerving experience."

Outside, it was a scene of devastation. The blast ripped off the front wheels of the 15-ton Ridgeback, tossing it high off the ground. The anti-rocket bar armour was shredded and the heavily reinforced hull was cracked. But, amazingly, all six soldiers inside the vehicle escaped uninjured.

The colonel and his team were returning from Patrol Base Silab in Helmand, in January, and had decided to take a route through the desert. It was open and flat. "It wasn't really an obvious vulnerable point," says the colonel.

He continues: "I always thought it was a case of 'when' not 'if' we drove over an IED. So I felt a sense of guilty relief, to be honest. We were unhurt after all ... there was a fair amount of nervous laughter. 'Squaddie' humour kicks in and you don't think too deeply about the 'what if'. The memory stays with you and the next time you move through a VP [vulnerable point], you tend to take it a little more gingerly."

This time the colonel and his team were lucky. But the Taliban don't always have it their own way. Col Walker revealed that his battle group's team of snipers has had a devastating impact on the Taliban morale.

In one ambush, the Grenadier Guard's reconnaissance platoon shot dead 16 insurgents in a carefully coordinated attack which was initiated by a pair of snipers.

"The sniper is a fantastic psychological weapon," says Col Walker. "Obviously I can't tell you how many I had but I would have taken a battalion full of snipers if they had been offered. The Taliban fear them because of their accuracy, and I favoured them because they cause minimal collateral damage.

"All of my soldiers practised 'courageous restraint' and that is about fighting on our terms not the Taliban's. If you fight every time the Taliban attacks you will set your self up for a fall.

"They will attack from compounds where civilians are living and if you return fire and kill a civilian the Taliban will tell the local population that the British were responsible and you can very quickly undo all the good work you have done. Because the sniper is a weapon of accuracy you can minimise that risk, and fight the insurgents on your own terms in a way which keeps the civilians out of the firing line."

The Grenadier Guards battle group have spent six months in the Nad e'Ali area of Helmand. Seven members of the battle group have been killed and more than 60 wounded in action.


Photo: HEATHCLIFF O'MALLEY