Soldier captured, Taliban says, as US offensive begins (Roundup)

Kabul - The US military on Thursday began a large-scale offensive against the Taliban in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan as a local militant commander said the Taliban had captured a US soldier. The offensive in Helmand marked the beginning of the implementation of US President Barack Obama's new strategy in Afghanistan, which aims to step up the fight against the militants. About 4,000 US marines and 650 Afghan soldiers were taking part in Operation Khanjar, a US military spokesman said. Helmand is a stronghold of the Taliban, which has large swaths of the province under its control. Meanwhile, the US military said the Taliban was believed to have captured an American soldier, who has been missing since Tuesday, in the south-eastern Afghan province of Paktika. Mullah Sangin, a local Taliban commander, said that besides the US soldier, the militants also captured three Afghan troops. He said the American was roaming outside his base in the Yousufkhel district with the three Afghans and was drunk. The troops were disarmed without resistance and driven away on motorbikes, Sangin said. The Taliban has in the past seldom been able to capture foreign soldiers. In Helmand, the latest offensive was differentiating itself from earlier operations by its troop strength and the speed of the deployment. It was seen as having the mark of the new US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, a specialist in covert operations who replaced David McKiernan in mid-June after the security situation in the mountainous country noticeably deteriorated. The US and Afghan militaries made no comment about casualties in the offensive, but Taliban spokesman Kari Jussif Ahmadi said the militants had killed 'more than a dozen' foreign troops and suffered no casualties themselves. The Taliban's casualty reports, however, are widely considered to be exaggerated. Ahmadi also claimed that 'the foreign troops bombed civilian sites instead of hideouts of the Taliban.' The Islamist fighters had taken cover in secure sites, he said. Daud Ahmadi, a spokesman for Helmand's governor, said 1,000 Afghan security personnel were fighting alongside the 4,000 Americans. He added that civilian reconstruction would follow on the heels of the military operations. The aim of the Helmand offensive is to drive the Taliban out of Helmand, restore the influence of the national government in the area and achieve a stable environment ahead of the August 20 presidential election, the US military said. The US soldiers are attempting to set up a series of bases and to stay in Helmand. The aim is to improve the security situation in the province long term and create stability, Brigadier General Larry Nicholson said. The dangerous challenge that lies ahead was proven by the deaths of two British soldiers in Helmand ahead of the offensive. The soldiers were killed in fighting Wednesday near Lashkar Gah, the Defence Ministry in London said Thursday. Six other NATO soldiers were wounded, it said. The deaths took the British toll in Afghanistan since the start of operations there in October 2001 to 171. Pakistan's military said it had deployed troops on its side of the border to stop any Taliban fighters fleeing the Helmand offensive. 'It's a reorganization of our troops deployed along the Afghan border,' said an army spokesman, Major General Athar Abbas. 'Our soldiers will guard the mountain treks the Taliban can use to infiltrate Balochistan province' in south-western Pakistan. The United States has reportedly deployed about 8,500 marines to Helmand in the past two months. As part of Obama's new strategy, the US contingent in Afghanistan would be strengthened by an extra 21,000 soldiers and there would be a new emphasis on civil and economic aid. Obama is prioritizing the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan and in neighbouring Pakistan over the war in Iraq, where US troops withdrew from cities and towns Tuesday. As the violence in Iraq has waned, that in in Afghanistan has been soaring Militants carried out more than 400 attacks in the first week of June, according to the US commander in the Middle East and Central Asia, General David Petraeus. That was the highest figure since the US-led military overthrow of the Taliban regime in 2001. In June last year, there were fewer than 250 Taliban attacks per week, and in January 2004, there were fewer than 50 per week, a spokesman for the four-star general said.