KABUL: US Marines and Afghan troops on Friday launched the first offensive since President Barack Obama announced an American troop surge, striking against Taleban communications and supply lines in a southern insurgent stronghold, a military spokesman said.
Hundreds of troops from the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines and the Marine reconnaissance unit Task Force Raider were dropped by helicopter and MV-22 Osprey aircraft behind Taleban lines in the northern end of the Now Zad Valley of Helmand province, scene of heavy fighting last summer, according to Marine spokesman Maj. William Pelletier.
A US military official in Washington said it was the first use of Ospreys, aircraft that combine features of helicopters and fixed wing aircraft, in an offensive involving units larger than platoons.
The official said that Ospreys have previously been used for intelligence and patrol operations.
A second, larger force pushed northward from the Marines’ Forward Operating Base in the town of Now Zad, Pelletier said. Combat engineers were forcing a corridor through Taleban minefields with armored steamrollers and explosives, Pelletier said.
In all, about 1,000 Marines as well as Afghan troops were taking part in the operation, known as “Cobra’s Anger,” he said.
There were no reports of NATO casualties. The spokesman for the Afghan governor of Helmand province, Daood Ahmadi, said the bodies of four slain Taleban had been recovered.
Ahmadi said 150 Afghan troops were taking part in the operation, which had found more than 300 mines and roadside bombs by Friday evening.
The operation began three days after Obama announced that he was sending 30,000 reinforcements to Afghanistan to help turn the tide against the Taleban. America’s European allies will send an estimated 7,000 more troops to Afghanistan next year “with more to come,” NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen announced Friday.
Most of the new troops are expected to be sent to southern Afghanistan, including Helmand, where Taleban influence is the strongest.
The new offensive aims to cut off the Taleban communication routes through Helmand and disrupt their supply lines, especially those providing explosives for the numerous lethal roadside bombs, or improvised explosive devices, that litter the area, known by Marines as “IED Alley.” Pelletier said several arms caches and at least 400 pounds of explosive materials had been found so far Friday.
“Right now, the enemy is confused and disorganized,” Pelletier said by telephone from Camp Leatherneck, the main Marines base in Helmand. “They’re fighting, but not too effectively.” Pelletier said insurgents were caught off guard by the early morning air assault.
