 Hundreds of British troops have seized key canal crossings in a Taleban stronghold in southern Afghanistan, military officials said Friday, part of a new US-led operation to wrest the initiative from insurgents.| The British troops slipped the leash? |
The British push, one of the largest its overstretched troops have made in the Taleban heartland and key opium-producing province of Helmand, is part of a wider offensive launched by thousands of US Marines on Thursday.
The Marines met little resistance on the first day of Operation Khanjar, the first big test of US President Barack Obama's new regional strategy to defeat the Taleban and its allies and stabilize Afghanistan. Their objective is to seize virtually all of the lower Helmand River Valley, the world's biggest opium poppy-producing region, and hold the ground they win, something British-led NATO troops have so far been unable to do.
| I'm no expert on these matters, but perhaps it would have helped had they been issued ammunition and transportation. |
Violence in the Taleban-led insurgency is at its highest since the Taleban's ouster in 2001 and the offensive, in the short-term at least, is meant to provide a secure environment for an Aug. 20 presidential election. In the longer term, US and NATO troops want to engage with local populations as part of a new counterinsurgency strategy under Gen. Stanley McChrystal, appointed as the new commander of foreign troops in Afghanistan after previous conventional warfare tactics failed. With new tactics to win over the Afghan population and new commanders in place, the US military hopes the operation will mark the turning point of a war some in Washington have admitted they are not winning.
Hundreds of British soldiers have seized 13 canal crossings since Operation Panchai Palang, or Panther's Claw, began 10 days ago with an airborne assault north of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah. It is part of the overall Marine-led operation.
On Friday, another 800 British troops began pushing north toward Gereshk, Helmand's main industrial city. "Taking control of the crossings will now allow British troops to prevent insurgents' movements between Helmand's two largest cities, Gereshk and Lashkar Gah, and will ultimately improve security and freedom of movement for the local people," the British military said in a statement. |