Marines launch operation in Afghanistan's Taliban territory

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

OUTSIDE GARMSER, Afghanistan - U.S. Marines in helicopters and Humvees flooded into a Taliban-held town in southern Afghanistan's most violent province early Tuesday, the first major American operation in the region in years.

Several hundred Marines pushed into the town of Garmser in predawn light in an operation to drive out militants, stretching NATO's presence into an area littered with poppy fields and classified as Taliban territory.

Helmand province is the world's largest opium poppy growing region and has been a flashpoint of the increasingly violent insurgency the last two years. British troops — who are responsible for Helmand — have faced fierce battles on the north end of Helmand.

U.S. commanders say Taliban fighters had been expecting an assault and were setting up improvised explosive devices. It wasn't known how much resistance the Marines would face in Garmser, where the British have a small base at the town's edge but whose main marketplace is closed because of the Taliban threat.

Maj. Tom Clinton, the American commander at Forward Operating Base Dwyer, a British outpost 10 miles west of Garmser, said the Taliban had undoubtedly seen the Marines moving into the area in recent days.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080429/ap_on_re_as/afghan_marines;_ylt=AuA.43erl6n1TYS2qlLGPyIBxg8F

[Bobbieo]

1. Good!! They never should have left Afghanistan. The folly of Bush and Iraq.

Now, the have to start all over again!!!

[derby378]

2. I'm reading Robert Young Pelton's LICENSED TO KILL right now...

It's amazing how much shit is going down in Afghanistan and even Pakistan right now, and how so little of it ever shows up on American media. Suffice it to say that if you're hoping for bin Laden to be captured soon, you're in for a long wait. It's so convoluted and shadowy over there it isn't even funny anymore.

[maddezmom]

3. NATO soldier among 17 killed in Afghan attacks - Summary

Kabul - One NATO soldier and 16 insurgents were killed, and four NATO soldiers and a dozen more rebels were wounded, in two separate attacks in the eastern and southern regions of Afghanistan, officials said on Monday. The NATO soldiers came across the militants while they were patrolling on Sunday, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement.

The injured ISAF soldiers were transported to a military hospital to receive treatment, the statement said, but it did not identify their nationalities or say where in southern Afghanistan the incident took place.

more:http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/201865,nato-soldier-among-17-killed-in-afghan-attacks--summary.html

[maddezmom]

4. Blast Kills 15 in Afghanistan

Blast Kills 15 in Afghanistan

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban militants killed 19 Afghans, including seven civilians, and wounded 41 more in a suicide bomb attack on a drug eradication team in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry said.

The Taliban have vowed to step up suicide attacks this year, to undermine the faith of Afghans in the ability of their government to provide security and to sap support in the West for the continued presence of international troops in the country.

~snip~

"Late this morning and into the afternoon we've encountered some light resistance in the form of small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades from buildings along the routes that we're securing, but nothing huge or organized," she said.

The town of Garmsir in the south of Helmand has been the scene of frequent raids by Afghan, British and U.S. troops, but has hitherto eluded capture.

One ISAF soldier was also killed and another one wounded during a patrol in the eastern province of Kapisa on Tuesday, ISAF said. Most foreign troops in Kapisa are American.

more:http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-afghan-violence.html

[ohio2007]

5. Suicide attack on Afghan anti-drugs team kills 18 ( UN gets a clue )

US Marines launch operation in Garmser to drive out insurgents

JALALABAD: A suicide bomb tore through a team preparing to eradicate opium poppy fields in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing 18 people, most of them policemen, the government said.

The Taliban movement said one of its men carried out the attack in Khogyani in the eastern province of Nangarhar.
The bomb struck as a counter-narcotics team, which included the district governor, was preparing to travel to opium fields on a mission to destroy illegal poppy crops, the Afghan Interior Ministry said in a statement.“Eleven police and seven (civilians) lost their lives and 31 others were wounded,” it said, adding that the district chief was among the wounded.
In a statement condemning the bombing, the UN mission said, “The circumstances of this attack illustrate the unmistakable bonds of partnership between terrorists and drug traffickers.”

The blast left the area covered in flesh and blood, a witness from the main hospital in the city of Jalalabad, said.


snip

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\04\30\story_30-4-2008_pg7_1


battling the war on drugs is fighting the WOT.
Taliban must really need that opium. Let the preditors target the opium operations at night when the opium is being moved. Of course, expect the MSM play up the humaan sheild deaths when the marines press the attack in a spring offensive..
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=daa_1209503981