Feb 12, 2010 | PressTV
US-led forces have started a major offensive against the Taliban's last big stronghold in Afghanistan.
US-led forces have started a major offensive against the Taliban's last big stronghold in Afghanistan.
US and Afghan forces have been facing resistance from Taliban militants in the southern Afghan town of Marjah where the joint forces launched a major operation.
The assault started before dawn on Saturday with airborne attacks and involved 4,500 US Marines, 1,500 Afghan troops and 300 US soldiers.
"At 0230 this morning (2200 GMT Friday), helicopters inserted combined forces into Marjah town," said Lieutenant Josh Diddams, Spokesman for the US Marines at Taskforce Leatherneck in Helmand.
An Afghan army commander announced that five Taliban militants were killed in the first hours of the assault codenamed "Mushtarak" in the town of Marjah, a major Taliban stronghold.
The operation, the first since US President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan in December, is a major test of Obama's strategy to end the eight-year war against the Taliban.
The US announced the decision to launch the operation earlier to help reduce Afghan officials' criticism about civilian casualties which has been a vexed issue between the two sides.
But the residents of the town and the villagers around Marjah have been facing difficulties to flee the region, which is surrounded by a treacherous network of canals and heavily mined fields and roads.
Thirty-four Marjah elders have sent a letter outlining their worries to the provincial government.
Earlier a local Taliban commander Qari Fazluddin had told Reuters that about 2,000 militants were ready to fight in Marjah, a town considered to be the Taliban's last big stronghold in Afghanistan.
The group says it has already started launching mortars, killing at least 25 foreign troops in fresh attacks.
Taliban has described the operation as "more propaganda than military necessity."
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Five foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan
At least three US soldiers and two NATO troopers have been killed in southern Afghanistan, says the NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).The military alliance confirmed the casualties on Saturday without giving the nationalities of the two NATO soldiers.
One NATO soldier was killed in a roadside bomb attack, while another died of small arms fire, the alliance said in a statement.
In an earlier statement, the ISAF had announced that three US soldiers were killed when a bomb exploded on Saturday.
Meanwhile, a US military convoy was targeted in the city of Kandahar, leaving one foreign soldier and one Afghan civilian dead.
Three other international troops and four Afghan soldiers were also wounded in the attack.
More than 110,000 international troops are currently in Afghanistan, and another 40,000 are ready to be deployed in the war-torn country.
