Marines, Afghan troops battle holdout insurgents in Marja
NAWA, Afghanistan and KABUL, Afghanistan — Backed by fighter jets and attack helicopters, U.S. Marines and Afghan troops closed in on an insurgent-ridden sector of Marja on Sunday, the ninth day of a coalition bid to wrest control of the southern Afghan town from the Taliban.
The fighting, concentrated in Marja’s northwest, took place amid what NATO called “determined resistance” from holdout fighters in various locations in and around the town. Advancing coalition troops faced a continuing threat from small-arms fire and improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, the Western military said in a statement.
“We’re still pushing through the city,” said Lt. Josh Diddams, a Marine spokesman. Some of the remaining pockets of insurgents consist of only a tiny handful of fighters, but at least 40 -- a relatively large concentration -- are thought to be holed up in the town’s northwest quarter, the Associated Press reported.
The battle of Marja is the largest coalition assault since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban. NATO commanders want to break the insurgents’ grip on the town and its environs as part of a larger effort to establish government authority for the first time in years in a strategic swath of troubled Helmand province.
NATO said the operation remains “on track,” although commanders conceded this past week that clearing operations will take a month or more, somewhat longer than originally envisioned.
In coming days, however, the coalition expects the town will be secure enough to bring in a newly appointed Afghan governor, marking a symbolic shift in emphasis away from the military confrontation and toward job creation, school openings and the setting up of other long-absent public services.
The military said in a statement that route clearance -- ridding the roads of one buried bomb after another -- was improving freedom of movement for local people. Many Marja residents have been pinned down in their homes for days by the fighting, or have fled to other parts of the province.
Shops are slowly reopening as well, field commanders and local officials said.
Although the Marja offensive is concentrated in the district of Nad Ali, where the town is located, related operations are taking place across Helmand, the insurgency’s traditional heartland.
NATO forces on Sunday reported the capture of a Taliban commander and another insurgent in a shootout in Kajaki district, in eastern Helmand, which left one of the suspects wounded. Both of the men arrested Friday were thought to have helped plant IEDs and plan attacks.
In another operation last week that was tied to the Marja offensive, coalition forces in Sangin district, also in Helmand’s east, captured three Taliban fighters and seized nearly 150 detonators for bomb making.
Twelve Western troops have been killed in the Marja offensive. NATO on Sunday reported the death of a service member in an IED strike in southern Afghanistan, but said the fatality was not related to the offensive. The nationality was not disclosed.
Staff writer Perry reported from Nawa and staff writer King from Kabul.
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