15,000-NATO-Afghan troops / 100,000 people / 2,000Taliban fighters*American soldiers said Saturday that firefights with the Taliban began sporadically but grew more frequent and more intense as the day went on.
> Late in the afternoon, insurgents and a company of Marines fought a two-hour gun b
attle at Marja’s northern edge.> It ended when the Marines dropped a 500-pound bomb on the Taliban’s position.
* A local Taliban commander named Hashemi, said. “We are strong and we won’t give up. We will fight to death.”
* NATO troops in Marjah had been warning civilians by leaflets that they should try to find a safe place and stay indoors, in order to escape the worst of the battle and to minimise casualties.
* NATO forces had set up 11 outposts across Marja and two in the neighboring town of Nad Ali.
* From those posts, Marines and soldiers began to go on patrols, searching door to door for weapons and fighters.
* “I don’t have any information on the Taliban, neither where they are nor where they have gone,” said Palawan, a farmer in Marja
* “Our main goal in this joint operation is not to kill insurgents,” Defense Minister Mr. Wardak said. “In fact, our primary goal is to expand the government’s influence and protect the civilian population.”
* Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, a top Marine commander in the south, predicted it could take 30 days to clear Marjah because of all the hidden explosives.
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NATO's most ambitious offensive against Taliban strongholds in Helmand province entered its second day Sunday, with officials claiming 27 insurgents killed.
Thousands of US Marines, Afghan and British forces were inserted by dozens of helicopters and armoured vehicles into Marjah and Nad Ali districts in the southern province Saturday.
The military operation is the largest since the ouster of Taliban regime by a US-led invasion in late 2001.
NATO officials claimed early success as troops cleared 13 targeted locations in the two districts, strategically important bastions in the country's main opium-producing region.
'The operation is going on successfully,' Daoud Ahmadi, spokesman for Helmand's provincial governor, said. He said seven insurgents were killed since Saturday night, bringing the total Taliban death toll to 27.
He said the combined forces also discovered and destroyed more than 2,500 kg of explosives.
Two NATO soldiers, one British soldier and a US marine were also killed in the first day of the operation, Ahmadi said. The British Defence Ministry also confirmed in a statement posted on its website that a soldier from 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards was killed by an explosion in Nad Ali district.
General Abdul Rahim Wardak, Afghan defence minister, said in Kabul Saturday that there had been some injuries among Afghan forces.
Wardak said several hundred Taliban fighters were still in the area, while a large number of the insurgents had fled before the start of the operation, which was announced weeks prior. Other NATO and Afghan officials estimated that from 600 to 1,000 Taliban were entrenched in the two targeted districts.
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