"The first wave of choppers has landed inside Marjah. The operation has begun," said Capt. Joshua Winfrey, commander of Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, which was at the forefront of the attack.[...]
The helicopter assault was preceded by illumination flares fired over the town about 2 a.m. [...]Tribal elders have pleaded for NATO to finish the operation quickly and spare civilians
[...]
On the eve of the attack, cars and trucks jammed the main road out of Marjah on Friday as hundreds of civilians defied militant orders and fled the area.
NEAR MARJAH, Afghanistan – Cars and trucks jammed the main road out of a besieged Taliban-held town on Friday as hundreds of civilians defied militant orders and fled the area ahead of an anticipated U.S.-Afghan assault.[…]
Once the town is secured, NATO hopes to rush in aid and restore public services in a bid to win support among the estimated 125,000 people who live in Marjah and surrounding villages.
After all, it worked so well in Baghdad.
Rehman Jan, an elder who lives in Lashkar Gah […] said most of the Afghan Taliban have already fled the area. Militant commanders from the Middle East or Pakistan have stayed on "and they want to fight," he said.
I shouldn’t hope for there to be an intact town for the people to return to if the people who are there to fight don’t have homes there to protect. And the report is that the people are leaving without any belongings to avoid having the Taliban realize that they are leaving.
U.S. intelligence officers estimate there are possibly up to 150 foreign fighters among the 400 to 1,000 Taliban militants in Marjah.
If they can’t narrow down the number of Taliban any closer than 600 out of 1,000, how can they give an estimate of the number of foreign fighters?
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