US Marine general says Taleban drug trade falters

Author: 
ANNE FLAHERTY | AP
Publication Date: 
Thu, 2010-09-02 22:01

The assessment by Maj. Gen. Richard Mills is a bright spot in an otherwise difficult war involving some 100,000 US troops. American forces for several months have been bogged down in a fight with insurgents in the farming hamlets of Marjah, an area in southern Afghanistan considered at the heart of Afghanistan's drug trade.
Mills said the insurgency in Marjah is a shadow of what it once was and that the Taleban's loss in revenue has made it difficult to resupply fighters. But, he added, the Taleban is continuing to terrorize the locals at night and hide explosive devices that are killing US forces and civilians.
"He can't give Marjah up without a fight, and he hasn't," Mills told reporters at a Pentagon news conference.
Mills declined repeatedly to answer questions about when US troops could begin to hand off security operations in Marjah to Afghan forces. He suggested that multiple factors were involved, and while other areas might be secure in "coming months," Marjah was not likely to be one of them.
"Marjah is still a work in progress, there's no question." Mills said. The "starting point" for progress there was "considerably behind some of the other areas" in Helmand province, he said.
President Barack Obama has said US troops will start leaving Afghanistan in July 2011, although the scope and size of withdrawals will depend upon security conditions on the ground.

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