U.S.-Led Forces in Afghanistan Poised for New Strike on Taliban

At least one American soldier was killed in fighting with Taliban guerrillas as the U.S.-led coalition prepared to launch a fresh offensive today against insurgents in southern Afghanistan, the military said Wednesday.

The soldier died Tuesday during a Taliban attack on a patrol in Helmand province, where guerrillas and coalition forces have fought several fierce battles in recent weeks.

The U.S. military said more than 11,000 Afghan, American, British and Canadian troops would begin Operation Mountain Thrust against Taliban fighters today in the four southern provinces where the insurgents are strongest: Zabol, Kandahar, Helmand and Oruzgan.

In Kandahar this morning, a powerful bomb hidden in a minibus that was carrying laborers from a coalition air base exploded and killed more than 10 people and wounded 15, police said.

Afghan soldiers will form the largest contingent. About 2,300 U.S. Special Forces and regular troops also will take part in the operation, which will include an effort to win the support of southern Afghans with reconstruction and humanitarian aid projects.

In Helmand province, the country’s largest source for opium used in producing heroin, Taliban fighters have surrounded some districts, Gov. Mohammed Daoud said by telephone from the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.

“They threaten people. They kill people. And sometimes they cut their heads off,” he said. “So this operation is intended to clean them out.”

He predicted the offensive would be more effective than previous operations against insurgents because it was better planned.

“But we should also say that the Taliban are getting ready for this offensive,” he said. “It’s not like they are all sleeping. But still I don’t think they’ll have the ability to fight against such an organized operation. And I don’t think there will be heavy fighting.”

The operation also is intended to make remote areas of the province more secure for aid workers and reconstruction projects, and improve job opportunities for residents, the governor said.

“I think it will take time for development projects to start functioning in different parts of the province,” he said.

The surge in fighting has killed several hundred people, most of them suspected insurgents, since Taliban and allied fighters began their own offensive this spring as mountain snow melted and the guerrillas were able to move about more freely.

The insurgents in the south also appear to be taking advantage of the switch-over from U.S.-led forces to North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops, mainly from Britain and Canada, which is expected to be completed next month.

This month, NATO announced it would deploy 6,000 troops in the region, which the alliance said was about double the average number of U.S.-led forces in southern provinces over the last few years.

“They have been relatively short of troops, of boots on the ground,” Lt. Gen. David Richards said at a news conference June 4 in Kabul.

A U.S. military statement said combined operations by Afghan and foreign troops over the last several months had “greatly disrupted the enemy’s ability to organize and act.”

But fighting continues to escalate in Afghanistan, which is suffering its worst violence since late 2001, when U.S. and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban regime after the Sept. 11 attacks.

A second foreign soldier, whose nationality was not identified, died in combat in Kunar province Wednesday during Operation Mountain Lion, which about 2,500 Afghan and American forces launched in April against insurgents along Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan.

The mission “to disrupt insurgent safe havens and extend governance to the remote regions of the province” is showing results, the U.S. military said.