Kabul - The US military launched a major offensive against
the Taliban in southern Afghanistan on Thursday as it was confirmed
that an American soldier had been captured by militants in the
eastern part of the country.
The offensive in Helmand province marked the beginning of US
President Barack Obama's new strategy in Afghanistan designed to
intensify the fight against the resurgent Taliban by going after its
strongholds. Since taking office, Obama has identified the conflict
in Afghanistan as the largest national security threat facing the
United States.
About 4,000 US Marines and 650 Afghan soldiers were taking part in
Operation Khanjar, a US military spokesman said. The Taliban controls
large swaths of the province.
Meanwhile, the US military confirmed the Taliban appears to have
captured an American soldier who went missing Tuesday in the eastern
Afghan province of Paktika.
'We are now exhausting all available resources to find him,'
Lieutenant Commander William Speaks, a spokesman for US Central
Command in Tampa, Florida, said. The soldier is believed to be the
first captured by the militants, but that could not immediately be
confirmed by Speaks.
Mullah Sangin, a local Taliban commander, said three Afghan troops
were taken in addition to the American.
The soldier was roaming outside his base in the Yousufkhel
district with the three Afghans and was drunk, Sangin claimed. The
soldiers were disarmed without resistance and taken away on
motorbikes, he said.
The Helmand offensive is one of the largest by US forces in
Afghanistan in years and was marked by the size and speed of the
deployment. It's the first under the new US commander in
Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, an experienced special
operations officer who replaced General David McKiernan mid-June.
The decision to replace McKiernan was a sign of frustration with
the slow pace of progress in Afghanistan.
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 plans were
in place for reconstruction following military operations.
The US military said it intends to drive the Taliban out of
Helmand, restore the influence of the national government and
stabilize the region ahead of the August 20 presidential election.
US soldiers are attempting to set up a series of bases to hold the
ground in Helmand once it's taken from the Taliban. Helmand has been
one of Afghanistan bloodiest areas, and the goal is to create long-
term stability there, Brigadier General Larry Nicholson said.
Two British soldiers in Helmand were killed ahead of the offensive
during fighting Wednesday in Lashkar Gah, the Defence Ministry in
London said Thursday. Six other NATO soldiers were wounded, the
ministry 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 from fleeing.
'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 as he shifts the focus away from Iraq.
US troops withdrew from Iraqi cities and towns Tuesday as part of an
agreement with Baghdad.
As the security situation in Iraq has improved greatly in the last
two years, the environment in Afghanistan has sharply deteriorated.
Militants carried out more than 400 attacks in the first week of
June, said General David Petraeus, the chief of Central Command,
which oversees military operations in the Middle East and Central
Asia. Violence has been at its highest level since the US-led
coalition toppled the Taliban regime in 2001.
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