Marines link up in Taliban fight
MARJAH, Afghanistan (AP) — Marines moving by land from the north linked up Tuesday with U.S. units that have faced nearly constant Taliban attack in the four days since they were dropped by helicopter into this insurgent stronghold in southern Afghanistan.
Also Tuesday, U.S. artillery fired nonlethal smoke rounds to disperse Taliban fighters in Marjah — the first time cannons have been used in the fight to drive the militants from their logistical and opium-poppy-smuggling base. Commanders refused a Marine request to fire deadly high- explosive rounds because the unit on the ground could not be sure civilians weren’t at risk.
The linkup between the two Marine rifle companies and their Afghan army partners will enable the U.S. to expand its control in Marjah, situated in Helmand province 380 miles southwest of Kabul.
Lima Company of the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines moved through fields of hidden bombs and booby traps and braved heavy sniper fire to join up with the same battalion’s Kilo Company, which was airdropped into the town in the first hours of the operation Saturday.
Lt. Gordon Emmanuel, a platoon commander in Kilo Company, said the Marines landed without encountering Taliban fire but came under sustained attack as they fanned out from the landing zone.
“When it is daytime, there is nonstop contact until the sun goes down ... every day,” Emmanuel said.
A Taliban spokesman, however, claimed that insurgents retain control of the town and that coalition forces who “descended from helicopters in limited areas of Marjah” were now “under siege.”
Spokesman Tariq Ghazniwal extended an invitation by e-mail to foreign journalists to visit Marjah, saying the trip would “show who have the upper hand in the area.”
About 15,000 NATO and Afghan troops are taking part in the big offensive around Marjah, which has an estimated 80,000 inhabitants and was the largest southern town under Taliban control. NATO hopes to rush in aid and public services as soon as the town is secured to try to win the loyalty of the population.
A top Taliban commander, Mullah Abdul Razaq Akhund, dismissed the offensive as NATO propaganda and said on the group’s Web site that Marjah was militarily insignificant.
He said the main goal of the offensive was to “restore the place of the defeated military general in Afghanistan,” Gen. Stanley McChrystal, “even taking over a small village in Helmand temporarily and showing it to the Western world via video,” according to a translation from the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist messages.
NATO said a service member taking part in the Marjah operation was killed by a roadside bomb Tuesday — the third confirmed death among international forces since the attack on the town began. An American and a Briton were killed Saturday.
NATO did not identify the latest victim by nationality. Afghan military spokesman Lt. Mohammad Esah said Tuesday one Afghan soldier died in the offensive. But he did not say when.
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