U.S.-Afghan push targets Taliban haven

NAWA, Afghanistan | Thousands of U.S. Marines and hundreds of Afghan troops poured into Taliban-infested villages of southern Afghanistan with armor and helicopters Thursday in the first major operation under President Obama’s strategy to stabilize the country.

The offensive in the once-forgotten war was launched shortly after 1 a.m. Thursday local time in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold and the world’s largest opium-poppy-producing area. The goal is to clear insurgents from the hotly contested region before the nation’s Aug. 20 presidential election.

Officials described the operation, dubbed Khanjar, or “Strike of the Sword,” as the largest and fastest-moving of the war’s new phase, involving nearly 4,000 of the newly arrived Marines and 650 Afghan forces. British forces last week led similar, but smaller, missions to clear out insurgents in Helmand and neighboring Kandahar provinces.

“Where we go we, will stay, and where we stay, we will hold, build and work toward transition of all security responsibilities to Afghan forces,” said Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson.

Helicopters carried hundreds of Marines into the village of Nawa, about 20 miles south of the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, in a region where no U.S. or other NATO troops have operated in large numbers.

Daybreak brought the sporadic crackle of gunfire, but no heavy fighting immediately broke out. Medical helicopters circled overhead and landed, indicating possible early casualties among the Marines.

A roadside bomb early in the mission wounded one Marine, but he was able to continue, spokesman Capt. Bill Pelletier said.

Southern Afghanistan is a Taliban stronghold, but it also a region where Afghan President Hamid Karzai is seeking votes from fellow Pashtun tribesmen.

The Pentagon is deploying 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in time for the elections and expects the number of U.S. forces there to reach 68,000 by year’s end. That is double the number of troops in Afghanistan in 2008, but still half of much as are now in Iraq.

The Taliban, which took control of Afghanistan in 1996 and was ousted from power after a U.S.-led invasion in 2001, has made a violent comeback, wreaking havoc in much of the country’s south and east, forcing the United States to pour in the new troops.

Capt. Pelletier said troops in Thursday’s operation were sent in by a mixture of aircraft and ground transport under the cover of darkness.

The operation aims to show “the Afghan people that when we come in, we are going to stay long enough to set up their own institutions,” he said.

Once on the ground, the troops will meet with local leaders and discuss their needs and how to address them, he said.

“We do not want people of Helmand province to see us as an enemy. We want to protect them from the enemy,” Capt. Pelletier said.

“We are kind of forging new ground here. We are going to a place nobody has been before,” said Capt. Drew Schoenmaker, 31, from Greene, N.Y., who commands Bravo Company of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment.

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