US pushes ahead with Afghan offensive, reports first casualties

Kabul - The US military said Friday that it was pushing further into a Taliban bastion in southern Afghanistan after it had reported its first casualties in the offensive, the first under the US government's new strategy in the Central Asian country. A night vision handout picture released by the United States Marines, shows Marines from 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 3, Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan, boarding a UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter during the launching of Operation Khanjar, at Camp Bastion in Helmand province Afghanistan, in the early hours of 02 July 2009. EPA/US MARINES/HANDOUT

A night vision handout picture released by the United States Marines, shows Marines from 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 3, Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan, boarding a UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter during the launching of Operation Khanjar, at Camp Bastion in Helmand province Afghanistan, in the early hours of 02 July 2009. EPA/US MARINES/HANDOUT One marine infantryman was killed and several others were wounded Thursday in fighting on the first day of the operation in Helmand province, the US military said. It gave no reports of Taliban casualties in Operation Khanjar, in which the United States is seeking to drive the Taliban out of Helmand, set up a series of bases there to hold its ground and stabilize the region where the Taliban now holds large swaths of territory ahead of the August 20 presidential election. The offensive 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 US Defense Department said it had no reports of civilian casualties and said it had deployed neither artillery fire or airstrikes so far in the offensive, contradicting claims Thursday by a Taliban spokesman, Kari Jussif Ahmadi, who said, 'Foreign troops bombed civilian sites instead of hideouts of the Taliban.' He also said 'more than a dozen' foreign troops had been killed but no Taliban fighters. The Taliban's casualty reports, however, are widely considered to be exaggerated. Civilian casualties in military operations by international forces, which have come particularly in airstrikes and artillery fire, have caused discontent among the Afghan people. Before the beginning of Operation Khanjar, the United Nations had warned against an increase in civilian victims although, at the same time, it also noted that most civilians casualties were caused by Taliban attacks. Meanwhile, the British Ministry of Defence reported its highest-ranking officer death in combat since the Falkland Islands war with Argentina in 1982 - also in Helmand province. The lieutenant colonel and another soldier died ahead of the US offensive when a roadside bomb struck their convoy Wednesday, the ministry said late Thursday from London. Six British soldiers were also wounded in the bombing near Lashkar Gah, it said, bringing the British toll since the start of military operations in Afghanistan in late 2001 to 171. In Washington, a Pentagon official confirmed that for the first time a US soldier had been captured by militants in Afghanistan. The soldier had disappeared Tuesday in the south-eastern province of Paktika. Local Taliban commander Mullah Sangin said three Afghan soldiers were captured along with the American. Demands for the US soldier's release had yet to be made and would be decided upon by the Taliban's leadership council, he said. In Helmand, Operation Khanjar, or Strike of the Sword, began in areas of the Helmand River valley that had seldom, if ever, seen foreign forces, the US military said. Daud Ahmadi, a spokesman for Helmand's governor, said plans were in place for reconstruction after the military operations. The US troops are under the command of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. Similar operations were being conducted in other parts of Helmand and in Kandahar province, including a British-led operation launched last week.