NAWA, Afghanistan, July 2, 2009
Marines Kick Off Major Afghan Operation
About 4,000 Newly-Arrived Troops, Air Support, Flood Helmand Villages In Taliban Stronghold
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2nd Lt. Malachi Bennett from Tampa, Fla. of the 2nd MEB, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines patrols with fellow Marines to the village of Khwaja Jamal in Afghanistan's Helmand province, June 28, 2009. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
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The offensive in the once-forgotten war was launched shortly after 1 a.m. Thursday local time in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold and the world's largest opium poppy producing area. The goal is to clear insurgents from the hotly contested region before the nation's Aug. 20 presidential election.
Officials described the operation, dubbed Khanjar, or "Strike of the Sword," as the largest and fastest-moving of the war's new phase, involving nearly 4,000 of the newly arrived Marines and 650 Afghan forces. British forces last week led similar, but smaller, missions to clear out insurgents in Helmand and neighboring Kandahar provinces.
"This is the start of the first big counter-insurgency operation launched by the Marines since they went into the south as part of the buildup ordered by President Obama," said >CBS News Pentagon correspondent David Martin. "It's not a search-and-destroy operation designed to clear out Taliban strongholds. Instead, it's a push into the villages and towns to protect the local population from the Taliban."
"Where we go we will stay, and where we stay, we will hold, build and work toward transition of all security responsibilities to Afghan forces," Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson said in a statement.
Transport helicopters carried hundreds of Marines into the village of Nawa, some 20 miles south of the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, in a region where no U.S. or other NATO troops have operated in large numbers.
Daybreak brought the sporadic crackle of gunfire, but no heavy fighting immediately broke out. Medical helicopters circled overhead and landed, indicating possible early casualties among the Marines.
A roadside bomb early in the mission wounded one Marine, but he was able to continue, spokesman Capt. Bill Pelletier said.
Southern Afghanistan is a Taliban stronghold but also a region where Afghan President Hamid Karzai is seeking votes from fellow Pashtun tribesmen.
The Pentagon is deploying 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in time for the elections and expects the total number of U.S. forces there to reach 68,000 by year's end. That is double the number of troops in Afghanistan in 2008, but still half of much as are now in Iraq.
The Taliban, who took control of Afghanistan in 1996 and were ousted from power following a U.S.-led invasion in 2001, have made a violent comeback, wreaking havoc in much of the country's south and east, forcing the United States to pour in the new troops.
Pelletier said troops in Thursday's operation were sent in by a mixture of aircraft and ground transport under the cover of darkness.
The operation aims to show "the Afghan people that when we come in we are going to stay long enough to set up their own institutions," Pelletier said.
Once on the ground, the troops will meet with local leaders, hear their needs, and act on them, Pelletier said.
"We do not want people of Helmand province to see us as an enemy, we want to protect them from the enemy," Pelletier said.
"We are kind of forging new ground here. We are going to a place nobody has been before," said Capt. Drew Schoenmaker, 31, from Greene, New York, who commands Bravo Company of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment.
Reversing the insurgency's momentum has been a key component of the new U.S. strategy, and thousands of additional troops allow commanders to push and stay into areas where international and Afghan troops had no permanent presence before.
While Marine troops were the bulk of the force, recently arrived U.S. Army helicopters were also taking part in the operation in Helmand province.
In March, Obama unveiled his strategy for Afghanistan, seeking to defeat al Qaeda terrorists there and in Pakistan with a bigger force and a new commander. Taliban and other extremists, including those allied with al Qaeda, routinely cross the two nations' border in Afghanistan's remote south.
The governor of Helmand province predicted the operation would be "very effective."
"The security forces will build bases to provide security for the local people so that they can carry out every activity with this favorable background, and take their lives forward in peace," Gov. Gulab Mangal said in a Pentagon news release.
Obama aims to boost the Afghan army from 80,000 to 134,000 troops by 2011 - and greatly increase training by U.S. troops accompanying them - so the Afghan military can take control of the war. The White House also is pushing forces to set clear goals for a war gone awry, provide more resources and make a better case for international support.
There is no timetable for withdrawal, and the White House has not estimated how many billions of dollars its plan will cost.
© MMIX, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The secrets of tennis legend 
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See all 24 CommentsWhat is Obama's exit strategy from Afghanistan ? Oh, right....he doesn't have one....so the war will go on indefinitely.....same game, new players....amateur players who are unqualified as well
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I'm almost positive Obama's exit strategy in Afghanistan won't be the same as GW's. The invasion of a country that DID NOT attack us...
History? The Nazis were defeated. The Fascist in Italy were defeated. Japan was defeated. The USSR was brought to ruin. Today there is no longer Saddam or Bath party government in Baghdad, a Taliban government in Kabul, or terrorism from Lybia. Don't sell American foreign policy short.
THEY ARE AS OUTDATED AS THE M-14 RIFLE, TOO ELITE THINKING
TO BE COUNTED ON AS A REAL FIGHTING FORCE,
THIS SO CALLED 'ATTACK' IS MERELY A WALK THROUGH THE
COUNTRY SIDE, SEARCHING
THE HOMES, AND DEBASING THE LIVES OF POOR FAMILIES,
FAMILIES WITH LITTLE OR NO MEANS TO
DEFEND THEMSELVES, AMERICANS SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THE ROLE THE NEO CONS
HAVE PLACED OUR COUNTRY IN, WE ARE THE AGGRESSOR, WE WILL BE THE LOSER.
Won't he be surprised we he finds out.
Also...Tisk tisk. Puttin down Marines??
Gonna spit on a few when they get back from their tour?
New game in town.
TO BE RID OF NEO-CON IDEOLOGY WOULD BE A GREAT HELP TO OUR COUNTRY
BUT WITH THE NEO CON's, GO THEIR ONLY ALLIE, THE EVANGELICALS, AND THE
EVANGELICALS HAVE FAITH, NOT FACTS, THEY ARE WORSE THEN THE TALIBAN
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Now THIS is how a war is prosecuted! dubya's boobs had no clue and their strategy showed it and the results or rather, lack therof, proved it.
8 years at square one is downright embarrasing.
OOOOHHHHRRRRAAAAAHHHHH!
NO, I don't like the Taliban. But the Taliban are fighing for their religion, pride, families, resources, nation, hertiage, etc.
Our troops are fighing for a monthly pay check. Guess who usually wins. Remember Vietnam?
It's 2009, the 21st century. The US will never conquer the Middle East. We failed to conquer SE Asia and we will fail here. Sorry all you chicken hawks and war lovers.
They resent the fact that you have occupied their land and lives with arms on their heads. "You" humiliate them, their women, and intrude into their privacy and homes. They distrust the government and rudimentary security forces who have delivered nothing but added miseries to them under the blessing of "angels of peace." Providing one security man to each inhabitant is unrealistic. You train the local forces, forces will most likely be corrupt and brutal or would have no will, and the "common man" will ambush them and the cycle will continue.
Ignoring "Taliban" is ignoring the common man. Therefore, any strategy is simply a "forcing it down the throat." I have found striking similarities between the two worlds. We/They do not like to be forced what to do, and we all certainly get angry by just "suck it up."
They are no different from what you are. As much as you would dislike Soviet forces invading your neighborhood up in arms, they dislike their mudhouses being bombed from the sky and land. They live in fear and terror not knowing when the next assualt on their mudhouses is going to take place. It makes little difference wether their sufferring is bestowed upon them by "those who use civilian shields" or by "Angels of Peace." Therefore, their hatred is well-called for. That was no rocket science. A common man there would tell you, "you are welcome with a passport, but not with arms and uniforms."
American policymakers, their supporters, and Zionists, their sympathizers, are in ceaseless quest for enemy to destroy. "You" are all over from Korea to South America because of your "enemy"? Wrong!!!! You have enemy because you are "there." You do not have to look for enemy anywhere or everywhere; you will find it in the mirror.
Finally,
"You are fighting in dark, though with flashlights, but against invisible men."
sorry, but we know better
Do you know the history of the "Freedom Fighters" that mysteriousjz mentions in his comment, or are you just a typical Bubba J?
For you know-it-all young bucks....
The CIA trained Afghan "Freedom Fighters" to defeat the Russians (i.e. Communism) in the 1980s.
Now, for the sake of building shopping malls and implementing financial scandals in Afghanistan, coalition forces are destroying those same "Freedom Fighters" and their families.
In my 52 years, I have **never** seen anything so EVIL.
The reason we're there because the taliban is aiding/proctecting terrorist that attacked our country.
This is not rocket science. The Afghan and the region will be better off in the long run when the talibans are gone.
You'll get it when you put things in PROPER PERSPECTIVE!
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