Combat· Afghanistan War (Op ENDURING FREEDOM)
Now Zad
Now Zad was a district in northern Helmand that had been a Taliban stronghold and a ghost town, its population driven out by years of fighting and its ground heavily laced with mines, where Marines fought through the campaign to clear the insurgents and restore stability.
This record concerns the later Marine operations in the Now Zad area as forces worked to consolidate control and complete the long effort to wrest the district from the enemy. The Marines pushed through the contested terrain against the insurgents and the pervasive threat of improvised explosive devices, part of the broader campaign to secure the Helmand districts and allow the displaced residents to return. Now Zad had been one of the most entrenched insurgent havens in the province, and the fighting there spanned much of the Marine commitment to Helmand. The operations in the district reflected the grinding, hazardous work of clearing and holding ground in one of Helmand's hardest-fought areas.
Record no. 793