[Quqnoos] Thousands of people are leaving their homes ahead of a major military operation in southern Afghanistan. A huge force of US Marines leading NATO and Afghan soldiers is expected to launch a massive operation in Helmand's central district of Marjah -- a main Taliban stronghold -- in the coming days. "The government of Afghanistan will reclaim Marjah as one of its own," said the British commander of the operation, General Nick Carter.
The assault is known as Operation Mushtarak -- Dari for "together", as Afghan troops will also play a pivotal role -- and has been flagged by military officials for months to either repel or draw in the enemy.
Taliban leaders say they are massing fighters around Marjah in preparation for a bloody battle. "We are in control and ready to fight," said purported Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi, speaking by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Mushtarak echoes assaults last year -- the British Operation Panther's Claw and the Marines' Operation Dagger -- seen as successfully eradicating militants who had controlled other poppy-growing regions in Helmand province.
Preparatory operations around Marjah, south of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, have been going on for weeks, with leaflets dropped on the area from NATO helicopters warning residents of the assault to come.
Habibullah, 48, said he and his family left Marjah for Lashkar Gah two months ago to escape the violence.
"There are a lot of Taliban there. They are violent towards us, accusing us of spying for the foreign forces, demanding food all the time," he told AFP.
"There are still people living there and the Taliban are still in control, but there has been a lot of fighting, with gunfire and bombings, and lots of soldiers have been coming in to fight the Taliban and then leave," he said.
Operation Mushtarak comes after US President Barack Obama announced in December his plan for a troop surge. The US and NATO are deploying an extra 40,000 troops, on top of the 113,000 already in Afghanistan, as part of the surge, with most heading to the southern battleground.
Gen Stanley McChrystal, the commander of foreign troops in Afghanistan told a global security conference in Istanbul last week the situation in Afghanistan is serious but no longer deteriorating because "we have made significant progress... and we'll make new progress in 2010".