MARJAH, Afghanistan (Reuters) – US Marines spearheaded one of NATO’s biggest offensives against the Taliban in Afghanistan yesterday, in an early test of US President Barack Obama’s troop surge policy.
Marines in helicopters landed in Marjah district, the last big Taliban stronghold in Helmand province, in the first hours of a NATO campaign to impose government control on rebel-held areas before US forces start a planned 2011 drawdown.
They fired at least four rockets at militants who attacked from compounds near the bazaar in Marjah town. Hours later, the area was still gripped by the firefight.
There was one Marine casualty in the unit in which a Reuters correspondent was embedded. In their house nearby, a family huddled in one room, laundry flapping on the line outside.
“We are currently moving to seize our objective. We have been in contact for five hours from the southwest, north and east and we are moving to push to finish securing the areas of insurgents still,” Lieutenant Mark Greenlief told Reuters.
The Marines’ first objective was to take over the town centre, a large cluster of dwellings, and they called in two Harrier jets which flew over a Taliban position at the edge of the town centre and fired on the militants with machineguns.
Like civilians in the district of up to 100,000 people, the US, British and Afghan troops risk being blown up by booby traps the Taliban are believed to have rigged in the hundreds to try to slow the advance.
A local Taliban commander, Qari Fazluddin, told Reuters earlier about 2,000 fighters were ready to fight.
Also in southern Afghanistan, five NATO troops, including three Americans, died after roadside bomb strikes, and a shooting in southern Afghanistan yesterday, NATO said in a statement.
It was not clear whether they were killed during the offensive but the violence illustrated how vulnerable they still were after eight years of fighting the Taliban. Helmand task force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel David Wakefield said a British solider was killed in an explosion while on vehicle patrol during the operation. It was not clear whether the solider was one of the five.
NATO commander General Stanley McChrystal’s counter-insurgency strategy emphasises seizing population centres and avoiding combat in built-up areas whenever possible.
McChrystal has stressed precautions to avoid killing civilians, and the number of civilians killed by NATO troops has declined since he took command in mid-2009.
Heavy casualties may ruin the government’s chance of gaining more support from Afghans. NATO forces advised civilians not to leave their homes. Some have already fled Marjah.
“The international forces must adopt certain procedures and mechanisms during operation in Marjah to protect civilians,” Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in a statement.
In Marjah, resident Abdel Aziz, 16, told the Marines through a translator, “All the walls between the streets and houses are surrounded by bombs. Most people have gone to Lashkar Gah. That’s where we want to go today.”
An elderly neighbour emerged from her house and asked Marines not to fire at it. “This is just my house,” she said.
