Push In S. Afghanistan Sends a Message
It's the first big test of President Obama's new strategy for winning the war in Afghanistan. Thousands of U.S. Marines are on the move, deep in enemy territory. Their mission: to flush the Taliban out of a key province in the south ahead of next month's presidential election. At least one Marine has been killed in the fighting.
Meanwhile, a search is underway for an American soldier who was kidnapped by insurgents in eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border.
The push into southern territory is as much a statement as it is an operation, reports CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan.
And the message is clear: 4,000 Marines surging forward into the Helmand Valley - the first major assault under Mr. Obama's strategy to turn the tide in Afghanistan.
"We dropped into a few places that nobody had been," said Marine Corps Capt. Drew Schoenmaker.
The Helmand Valley is infested with Taliban fighters. Just days before today's offensive, Marines already based there provoked a ferocious fight with their enemy. The marines exchanged gunfire with Taliban fighters for hours.
It took air strikes to subdue a determined enemy. But experience shows that when faced with a much larger force, Taliban fighters typically melt away. That's what's expected in the major operation now underway.
It's how Taliban fighters - like the ones captured by "60 Minutes" cameras - have lived to fight another day - emerging stronger every year.
"I have a very narrow definition of success when it comes to our national security interests and that is that al Qaeda and its affiliates cannot set up safe havens from which to attack Americans," Mr. Obama said recently.
U.S. and British forces have taken the Helmand Valley before But it's always slipped back into enemy hands.
This time is supposed to be different:
"We're there for the long term," said Brig. Gen. Eric Tremblay, a spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, "and we have enough troops this time around," a TK spokesman said.
Helmand is not the only battleground for U.S. troops. Hundreds of miles to the east, where the fight is just as intense, a U.S. soldier has been kidnapped after leaving a small U.S. compound in the middle of the night.
CBS News has learned that not long after the soldier disappeared, U.S. intelligence picked up radio chatter that he had been kidnapped; they know he's already been sold to another group of Afghans; but no direct contact has been made with the kidnappers.
This incident and the fight in Helmand, are just the start of what promises to be a long, hot summer as U.S. forces battle to stabilize the country ahead of national elections in August.