Allied troops launched a major, critical offensive into Afghanistan’s most violent province last night, part of President Obama’s push to seize control of the Taleban’s last big stronghold.
The US-led assault, including 4,000 British troops, is the first since Mr Obama ordered 35,000 extra troops to Afghanistan in December.
It is the start of a campaign to impose government control on rebel-held areas this year, before US forces start to withdraw by the President’s self-imposed 2011 deadline.
If it fails, many analysts believe the war will be lost.
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About 4,500 US Marines, 1,500 Afghan troops and 300 US soldiers are taking part in the offensive in Marjah, in Helmand province, a Taleban stronghold where British and American troops have suffered heavy casualties in the past year.
One local Taleban commander, Qari Fazluddin, told Reuters earlier in the day that some 2,000 men were ready to fight in Marjah, a densely populated area where the Taleban are able to merge with the civilian population, complicating the task in taking on the enemy.
The Taleban had clear warning of the offensive, which is the vanguard of Mr Obama’s last chance to bring the Taleban and al-Qaeda insurgency to heel. Afghan and international forces gearing up for the offensive dropped leaflets hours before the offensive began warning people not to give shelter to the Taleban.
Daud Ahmadi, spokesman for Helmand province, said the leaflets fell in and around the city of Marjah.
“Do not allow the Taleban to enter your home,” the leaflet said, a clear warning to the Taleban and civilians that the offensive was imminent.
The push on Marjah is touted as the largest of the eight-year-old conflict. Commanders want to oust militants and are planning for tough urban warfare in a rugged area expected to be filled with roadside bombs and booby-trapped houses. Mr Obama’s dispatch of 35,000 extra troops brings the number of US military in Afghanistan to more than 100,000. It came after months of often agonised reviews with his war cabinet in Washington.
If the offensive founders and becomes bogged down with a rising death toll, the political consequences for Mr Obama in the US could be dire.
“I think some of our units will go into some very heavy contact and I think some of our units will have less contact. We don’t know,” US Marine Brigadier General Larry Nicholson told American and Afghan forces at Firebase Fiddler’s Green earlier this week. “We have done everything we can to prepare, and on the eve of this operation, I think we’re ready.”
For days, the military has publicised what they call the imminent start of Operation Mushtarak, the Dari word for Together. Troops also want to confront the region’s drug trafficking in Helmand, a major source of opium which is the biggest source of funding for the Taleban insurgency, which has grown increasingly lethal and sophisticated since last year.
Marjah is surrounded by fertile land where poppies grow easily, and the Afghan Government’s limited presence allows the drug trade to flourish.
The goal is to separate the Taleban fighters from the rest of Marjah’s 80,000 to 100,000 population, establish security and gain the trust of the remaining population — the key objectives of the US strategy.
One of he greatest obstacles is that classic counter-insurgency efforts such as this require much time, but the deadline set by Washington is extremely short, as is the patience of the war-weary US public.
“The population is looking for you, and the enemy is not the population,” General Nicholson told the Marines and Afghan troops.
“We have an enemy that will try to hide in that population. That’s why we’ve got to be very careful, and we’ve got to be very disciplined, and you’ve got to be very accurate.”
May they all remain safe, and may the families of any who die be well taken care of.
