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U.S. troops pushed forward with a “major operation” against Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, U.S. military officials in Afghanistan announced Thursday. At the same time, the Pakistan military said it was moving troops to its border with Afghanistan to block Taliban escape routes to the south. The U.S. military did not immediately provide details of the fighting, but a Taliban spokesman said the group’s fighters had killed 33 soldiers and destroyed several vehicles. NATO forces said no casualties were reported, adding that all the Taliban claims were false.
About 4,000 Americans, mostly from the Marines, and 650 Afghan soldiers and police launched Operation Khanjar — “strike of the sword” — in the Helmand River valley, the U.S. Marines announced. The push is the largest since the Pentagon began moving additional troops into the conflict this year, and it follows a British-led operation launched last week in the same region, the Marines said.
It is also the first big move since U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal took over as the allied commander in Afghanistan in mid-June. In Washington, a senior defense official told CNN the size and scope of the new operation are “very significant.” Helmand province, where much of the fighting is taking place, has been a hotbed of Taliban violence in recent months. More than 30 U.S., British and Danish troops have been killed there since January. The defense official said the operation is a “tangible indication” of the new approach that McChrystal — a former chief of the Pentagon’s special operations command — is bringing to the nearly 8-year-old war.
