Attack on Taliban
MARJAH, Afghanistan — U.S. Marines and Afghan soldiers spearheading the ground assault reached the outer rim of the Taliban-held town Saturday, as a major offensive began to break the extremists' grip over a wide area of their southern heartland.
Punching their way through a line of insurgent defenses that included mines and homemade bombs, the ground forces reached the main canal that marks the northern entrance to Marjah.
Five Taliban fighters have been killed and eight arrested since the offensive began overnight, said Helmand government spokesman Daoud Ahmadi. He said troops had recovered the bodies of the dead militants.
The long-awaited assault on Marjah is the biggest offensive since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan and is a major test of a new NATO strategy focused on protecting civilians. The attack is also the first major combat operation since President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 U.S. reinforcements here in December to try to turn the tide of the war.
The troops' advance into Marjah was slowed during the morning as they carefully picked their way through poppy fields lined with homemade explosives and other land mines. Outbursts of sporadic-but-intense gunfire rang out throughout the morning as insurgents and U.S. forces exchanged fire.
"For now, it's pretty calm, but we will see on the other side," said Lt. Carl Quist, commander of 1st Platoon, Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, during a lull in the ground assault from the northern end of the town.
The ground assault followed many hours after an initial wave of helicopters carrying hundreds of U.S. Marines and Afghan troops swooped into town under the cover of darkness early Saturday. Cobra helicopters fired Hellfire missiles at tunnels, bunkers and other defensive positions.
Marine commanders had said they expected between 400 to 1,000 insurgents — including more than 100 foreign fighters — to be holed up in Marjah, a town of 80,000 people in Helmand province. Marjah, located 360 miles (610 kilometers) southwest of Kabul, is the biggest southern town under Taliban control and the linchpin of the militants' logistical and opium-smuggling network.
Sporadic rocket fire from insurgents and the rattle of gunfire echoed in the air. A U.S. missile detonated a massive 55-gallon (208-liter) fuel-drum bomb that sent a mushroom of black smoke dozens of yards (meters) into the sky.
"The first wave of choppers has landed inside Marjah. The operation has begun," said Capt. Joshua Winfrey, commander of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, which was at the forefront of the attack.
The operation, codenamed "Moshtarak," or Together, was described as the biggest joint operation of the Afghan war. Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, commander of NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, said 15,000 troops were involved, including some 7,500 troops fighting in Marjah.
To the north, British, American and Canadian forces struck in the Nad Ali district in a push to break Taliban power in Helmand, one of the major battlefields of the war.
In a village north of Marjah, residents said they heard gunfire before dawn, but then it went quiet. Abdul Manan, a farmer in the village of Saipo, said he finally decided to risk going out of his house and saw American troops walking by. They told him to go back inside.
Taliban militants who had been in his village two days ago disappeared. "I don't see any Taliban now. I see Americans," he told The Associated Press by phone.
Once the town is secured, NATO hopes to rush in aid and restore public services in a bid to win support among the estimated 125,000 people who live in Marjah and surrounding villages. The Afghans' ability to restore those services is crucial to the success of the operation and to prevent the Taliban from returning.
Tribal elders have pleaded for NATO to finish the operation quickly and spare civilians — an appeal that offers some hope the townspeople will cooperate with Afghan and international forces once the Taliban are gone.
At the Pentagon, a senior U.S. official said Afghan President Hamid Karzai had signed off on the attack. Another defense official said Karzai was informed of planning for the operation well in advance. The official said it marked a first in terms of both sharing information prior to the attack and planning collaboration with the Afghan government.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because there were not authorized to speak publicly. The second official said the number of Afghan security forces in the district have roughly doubled since Obama's first infusion of some 10,000 Marines in southern Afghanistan last year.
The Marjah offensive involves close combat in extremely difficult terrain, that official said. A close grid of wide canals dug by the United States as an aid project decades ago make the territory a particularly rich agricultural prize, but they complicate the advance of U.S. forces.
On the eve of the attack, cars and trucks jammed the main road out of Marjah on Friday as hundreds of civilians defied militant orders and fled the area. For weeks, U.S. commanders had signaled their intention to attack Marjah in hopes that civilians would seek shelter.
Residents told The Associated Press by telephone this week that Taliban fighters were preventing them from leaving, warning that the roads were planted with bombs to slow the NATO advance.
Still, many people fled anyway for the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, 20 miles (30 kilometers) to the northeast. They told journalists they had to leave quickly and secretly, slipping out of town when Taliban commanders weren't watching.
Provincial spokesman Daoud Ahmadi said about 450 families — an estimated 2,700 people — had already sought refuge in Lashkar Gah. Most moved in with relatives, but more than 100 were being sheltered by the government, he said.
Ahmadi said the local government was prepared to shelter 7,000 families in nearby towns, providing them with food, blankets and dishes.
In advance of the attack, Afghan officials urged community leaders in Marjah to use their influence to persuade the Taliban to lay down their weapons and avoid a bloodbath. In return, the officials promised to improve the lives of the people there. Some of the Marjah elders said they were too scared to talk to the Taliban, but some said they had reached out.
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