| The Pakistan Army deployed some of its troops along the Pak-Afghan border to an area opposite Afghanistan's Helmand province, an Afghan Taliban stronghold where the United States launched a major offensive on Thursday. The deployment aims to block the Taliban's attempt to enter Pakistan to escape the US onslaught. Thousands of US Marines stormed into a river valley in Helmand in an operation that seeks to break the Taliban's hold on the opium-growing region and turn the tide of the war in Afghanistan. Helmand shares a 130-mile border with Balochistan and troops were being moved there to "challenge any crossing", the chief spokesman of the Pakistani military said. Major General Athar Abbas said, "The area which is not under stress at the moment, we can pull out troops from those areas and beef up the area which is coming under effect." |