Helmand province, southern Afghanistan – In a few explosive minutes, the picture of rural calm presented by the River Helmand is transformed into a melee of running troops, crackling small arms' fire and thunderous blasts of heavy munitions. Sheaves of freshly cut wheat are set ablaze in the fields, mud-walled compounds ripped apart by machine-gun fire and mortar shells as Danish infantry repel a surprise attack by Taliban insurgents.
"Welcome to the Green Zone," a grinning soldier tells a reporter who together with members of an early morning patrol dived into an irrigation ditch for shelter, landing in mounds of human faeces.
Such a rapid tilt from peace to war is not unusual in this lush but tormented strip of farmland that stretches more than 300 kilometres downstream from the giant dam and reservoir at Kajaki and through the Upper Gereshk Valley where the Danes operate.
Yielding fat crops of fruits, nuts, wheat, corn and the ubiquitous poppy flowers that are harvested for illicit production of opium and heroin, it's a garden of plenty in the deserts of southern Afghanistan and a focus of the militants' efforts against Afghan government and foreign forces.
"As we have gained experience in the terrain down here they can no longer move freely in the desert, we have got absolute superiority there so they have to find other ways to move weapons, money and men," said Captain Morten Haubro, deputy commander of the Fenris mechanized infantry company that endeavours to pacify the area.
The only alternate transit route is the Green Zone, where the Taliban also levy a tax in kind on the farmers' poppy and wheat crops. Since British-led forces pushed into Helmand two years ago, these idyllic pastures were transformed into a ready battleground.
The latest skirmish lasts more than two hours before resistance from three compounds is snuffed out. One Danish soldier was slightly injured and at least six Taliban are believed to have been killed. Others are presumed to have slipped away.
The area had been relatively quiet for a month following the construction of a small base 5 kilometres upstream. That drew the main attentions of the enemy but cells of fighters continue to harass the Danes and British with mines and IEDs, the improvised explosive devices they dig into the ground.
Those deadly homemade packages are triggered by the victim stepping on a crude pressure plate, or by cellphone or remote control through a wire, and the resultant blast is often followed with a small arms' attack by hidden gunmen.
In March, an IED killed a Danish soldier and injured two more. Some 40 other devices were discovered over the past three months, either by chance with mine detectors or after tip-offs by sympathetic locals.
"We found more IEDs in this area since February than were found across the whole of Regional Command South," said the patrol commander, Lieutenant Martin Soerensen, referring to Helmand and five more provinces that comprise NATO's southern theatre of operations in Afghanistan.
The locals, meanwhile, are trapped between the warring sides. After centuries of foreign invasion and conflict, mistrust of outsiders is endemic. Yet at the same time they know that lasting expulsion of the Taliban here would open the way for construction of Western-funded wells, schools, mosques, clinics and roads. Projects would also bring much needed employment to the villages.
That's the message the troops convey to the farmers they meet while patrolling the zone, although progress is undermined by damage that the fighting causes the crops.
"Winning hearts and minds - if we don't get that right we are never going to win this operation," said Lieutenant Colonel Peter Boysen, the acting commander of more than 600 Danish soldiers deployed in Afghanistan as part of the 40-country International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
But whatever reassurances and material help are given, dread of the Taliban still dominates almost seven years after the extremist Islamic militia was driven from power by US-led forces.
Ten minutes before the attack erupted with the detonation of an IED near the patrol, a nervous farmer brought his sick son to a Danish medic for examination. He balked at an invitation to take the whimpering boy to the nearby military base for treatment.
"I chatted to ISAF soldiers once before about various matters and didn't realise the Taliban were watching," he said. "Later they came to me and said it was my last warning and that next time I would be hung."
So the fight grinds on in the Green Zone, where the trees are heavy with almonds and apricots but life without bombardments, fire fights and fear still struggles to blossom.
