Marines Push Into Afghanistan Opium Region in Strike on Taliban
July 2 (Bloomberg) -- Thousands of U.S. Marines drove into a key Taliban opium-growing region in pursuit of the Obama administration’s new focus on securing Afghanistan.
Ed Johnson and James Rupert Ed Johnson And James Rupert – Thu Jul 2, 5:20 am ET
Almost 4,000 U.S. and 650 Afghan forces encountered little initial resistance as they spread through the Helmand River valley using helicopters and armored vehicles, said Captain Bill Pelletier, a Marine spokesman in southern Afghanistan. The offensive is the first of its size under the administration’s shift of emphasis from Iraq to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“Where we go, we will stay, and where we stay, we will hold,” Brigadier General Larry Nicholson said in a statement. Nicholson commands a Marine Expeditionary Brigade that is part of the additional 17,000 U.S. troops ordered to Afghanistan by President Barack Obama.
The offensive comes two days after U.S. combat troops withdrew from Iraqi cities under a drawdown that will let the Pentagon focus on the Afghan war.
The U.S.-led force moved before dawn and “encountered only light contact” with guerrillas by mid-morning local time, Pelletier said in a telephone interview from the Marine brigade’s headquarters near Lashkar Gah, the Helmand provincial capital.
The Marines said in their statement that they aim to take control of Nawa and Garmsir, two largely desert Helmand districts that are part of Afghanistan’s largest opium-growing region. International forces in the districts have been limited before now to a few British bases.
Opium Trade
Poppy fields in Helmand province produced two-thirds of Afghanistan’s opium in 2008, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The opium trade is a major financial pillar for the Taliban, which with local warlords gathered as much as $470 million from opium commerce last year, according to the UN office.
After the U.S. toppled the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001, Taliban guerrillas fled to Pakistan. No international forces occupied Helmand and adjacent southern provinces of Afghanistan, and Taliban guerrillas slowly regained control, forcing out the few Afghan government and police officials.
Beginning in 2006, British troops established several bases in Helmand, and were unable to oust the Taliban, which operates in part from sanctuaries in Pakistan, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of the area of today’s offensive.
Pakistan’s army is “reorganizing our forces near Helmand to ensure that Taliban fleeing the U.S. operation cannot cross the border into Pakistan,” Major General Athar Abbas, Pakistan’s military spokesman, said by telephone from the capital, Islamabad.
New Commander
U.S. General Stanley McChrystal assumed command of international forces in Afghanistan last month and has ordered new counterinsurgency tactics that he says will better protect civilians from the Taliban.
McChrystal has said troops must focus on gaining the trust of the people to win the conflict and told the Wall Street Journal last month he will push soldiers farther out from their bases among Afghan civilians to try to bring stability.
“The measure of effectiveness will not be the number of enemy killed, it will be the number of Afghans shielded from violence,” the general said in a statement last month.
The Helmand offensive aims to “connect local civilians with their legitimate governmentâ€
Troops will “build bases to provide security for the local people,” Helmand Governor Gulab Mangal said in the statement.
‘Classic Counterinsurgency’
The U.S. has about 54,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, with 36,000 in NATO’s International Security Assistance Force and 18,000 in a separate counterterrorism operation. The number of U.S. soldiers in the country is set to rise to 68,000 this year under Obama’s policy.
The reinforcements should enable the U.S. to follow a “classic counterinsurgency strategy of clear, hold and build,” something troops have failed to do since toppling the Taliban regime, said Anthony Bubalo, director of the West Asia Program at Australia’s Lowy Institute for International Policy.
“If you cannot hold territory and provide security, you can’t undertake the kind of development work you need to do to win hearts and minds and strengthen the authority of the government in Kabul,” he said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Ed Johnson in Sydney at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net ; James Rupert in New Delhi at jrupert3@bloomberg.net .