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Fighting in Afghan assault wanes

26 February 2010 19:21 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Police are in control and fighting has dwindled in a poppy-growing region of Afghanistan where US-led troops launched a major operation against the Taliban, an official said on Friday, APA reports quoting AFP.
But one day after Afghans raised the national flag and a US commander declared a "new beginning" for Marjah in Nad Ali district of the southern province of Helmand, NATO warned that hidden bombs remained a threat.
US Marines have led a force of 15,000 US, Afghan and NATO forces in a major assault to eradicate the Taliban who have controlled the area for years and to restore government control.
Operation Mushtarak ("Together") was launched February 13 and has made slow progress against some fierce resistance from militant fighters -- many of them indistinguishable from local farming people.
The assault has been billed as the biggest military operation since the 2001 US-led invasion ended the Taliban regime, and is a major test of US President Barack Obama’s troop surge battling to end the eight-year Afghan war.
The new US-led counter-insurgency strategy, designed to allow Western troops to be drawn down by mid-2011, dictates military preparation and assault, then establishing civilian security and services such as hospitals and schools.
People were beginning to return, said Daud Ahmadi, provincial spokesman, adding that police deployed to the area had "got control".
"Mines are being cleared and the involved forces have not faced any resistance in the last 24 hours," he said.
Elite police battalions -- trained by US Marines to reverse reputations for corruption and abuse -- are now in Marjah, officials have said.
But NATO warned that hidden bombs or improvised explosive devises (IEDs) planted by the Taliban throughout the area "remain the most pronounced threat to civilians and combined forces".
"Afghan and coalition forces are reporting a steady decline in direct-fire attacks," it said.
Operations were now focusing on improving conditions so that the thousands of people who fled before and during the violence could return, it said.
More than 4,000 families left Marjah, many of them taking refuge in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah as food, medicine and other supplies ran low, humanitarian workers said.