Assault on Taliban in southern Afghanistan begins

KABUL, Feb 13:  Thousands of US-led troops Saturday launched the first major offensive against Taliban insurgents since US President Barack Obama began sending more troops to Afghanistan, NATO said.



For the first time, Afghan soldiers are involved shoulder-to-shoulder with the international troops at the tip of the spear as they bring their fight to insurgents holding sway over the Marjah district of Helmand province.[break]



"The Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan announced today that key military ´clearing´ operations for Operation Mushtarak have begun in central Helmand," NATO´s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.



"These ´clearing´ operations follow the smaller-scaled ´shaping´ operations that have helped set the conditions for this new phase of operations," it said, referring to weeks of build-up and skirmishes with militants in the area.



US Marines are leading a combined force of 15,000, ISAF said, in Operation Mushtarak, meaning "together" in Dari, an assault aimed at undermining Taliban control over one of the world´s biggest opium-producing regions.



Mushtarak is the first phase of a major operation to re-establish Afghan government control over the region.



Helmand Governor Mohammad Gulab Mangal said earlier this week that a government-in-waiting is poised to move in behind the military operation to set up civil services, including police and security.



The goal of the operation is to assist the Afghan government "in asserting its authority in central Helmand, thereby demonstrating the Afghan government?s commitment to the people living there," the ISAF statement said.



The operation, described as the biggest military assault in Afghanistan since the war began more than eight years ago, got under way soon after midnight (1930 GMT), backed by NATO air support.



It comes after Obama announced in December a surge of 30,000 US troops, many of whom will be deployed to the troubled south where the insurgency is at its hottest, supplementing the 113,000 foreign troops already in the country. Related article: Afghan assault on Taliban to test US strategy.



NATO pledged another 10,000, as Obama said he wants to turn the tide of the war and being drawing down troops as early as July 2011.



The operation is concentrated on Marjah town, at the centre of the region of the same name with a population of around 125,000 mostly farming people.



Many of the townsfolk fled ahead of the offensive to escape the violence, but in recent days militants who have moved into Marjah have prevented many others from leaving.



The operation is expected to last for some weeks, as up to 1,000 Taliban fighters are believed to have hunkered down in and around the town, prepared for a bloody fight.



Militants have spent recent weeks building their numbers and lacing the area with hidden improvised explosive devises, or IEDs, which Western military planners say will be their biggest challenge as the assault proceeds.



Most deaths and casualties among troops fighting the insurgents are caused by IEDs. Civilians have also suffered severe losses and injuries to Taliban tactics, which also include suicide bomb attacks.

ISAF said the combined force includes the Afghan army and police, with US Marines and army backed by British forces. Danish, Estonian and Canadian troops are also involved.



"The operations now under way are designed to clear the region of insurgents and set the conditions for (the Afghan government) to introduce increased security, stability,

development, rule of law, freedom of movement and reconstruction," it said.



Taliban fighters have also been urged to leave the area or, as many are locals co-opted to fight for cash rather than any loyalty to the Islamists´ ideology, to rejoin mainstream society.



Zahir Tanin, Afghanistan´s ambassador to the United Nations, told the BBC that the operation represents a new counter-insurgency strategy, led by US General Stanley McChrystal, commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.



"The new thinking... aims at breaking up the Taliban in the area," he said.



The three main thrusts of the strategy are "how to spare civilians, how to avoid killing the Taliban, how to focus on reinstallation of local governance.



"The district leaders and a police force of 1,900 are waiting to start their work in Marjah when the operation has finished," Tanin said.

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