Marines, Afghan troops clear former Taliban town

MARJAH, Afghanistan - Marines and Afghan troops cleared the last major pocket of resistance in the former Taliban-ruled town of Marjah yesterday - part of an offensive that is the run-up to a larger showdown this year in the most strategic part of Afghanistan's dangerous south.

Although Marines say their work in Marjah isn't done, Afghans are bracing for a bigger assault in neighboring Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban where officials are talking to aid groups about how to handle up to 10,000 people who could be displaced by fighting.

"I was in Kabul, and we were talking that Kandahar will be next, but we don't know when," said Tooryalai Wesa, the governor of Kandahar. He's begun working with international aid groups to ensure the next group of displaced Afghans have tents, water containers, medicine, food, blankets, lamps and stoves.

Shortages of food and medicine have been reported during the 2-week-old Marjah operation. The international Red Cross evacuated dozens of sick and injured civilians.

The United Nations says an estimated 22,000 people, from Marjah and surrounding areas have registered in Helmand's capital of Lashkar Gah 20 miles away.

The Marjah offensive has been the war's biggest combined operation since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion to topple the Taliban's hard-line regime. It's the first major test of NATO's counterinsurgency strategy since President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 new American troops to try to reverse Taliban gains.

The Marjah operation is the tactical prelude to the bigger one being planned for later in Kandahar, the largest city in the south and the former Taliban headquarters, according to senior Obama administration officials. It was from in and around Kandahar that Taliban overlord Mullah Omar ruled Afghanistan before the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.

Saturday, after a four-day march, Marines and Afghan troops who fought through the center of Marjah linked up with a U.S. Army Stryker battalion on the town's northern outskirts.

"Basically, you can say that Marjah has been cleared," said Capt. Joshua Winfrey, commander of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment.