US Marines with 1/3 Charlie Company battle with insurgents North East of Marjah on February 11. (AFP Image)
Helicopter-borne US Marines and Afghan troops swooped down on the Taliban-held town of Marjah before dawn on Saturday, launching a long-expected attack to re-establish government control and undermine support for the militants in their southern heartland.
The attack on Marjah climaxed the biggest joint Afghan-international offensive of the war and is the largest combat operation since US President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 reinforcements last December to turn the tide of the war.
Marine commanders say they expect between 400 to 1,000 insurgents to be holed up inside this southern Afghan town of 80,000 people in Helmand province, including more than 100 foreign fighters.
Marjah is the biggest southern town under Taliban control and the linchpin of the militants' logistical and opium-smuggling network.
Several hundred US Marines and some Afghan troops were in the first wave of troops, flying over minefields the militants are believed to have planted around the town, 360 miles (610 kilometres) southwest of Kabul.
The operation, codenamed "Moshtarak," or Together, was described as the biggest joint offensive of the Afghan war. Earlier in the week, Lieutenant Colonel Nick Lock of the Royal Welsh Battle Group spoke to troops preparing for battle.
He urged them to make sure they partnered up and worked well with Afghan troops in dealing with the civilian population.
"So it will take time for them to grow in confidence and to engage with us and our Afghan partners. But we need to get to grips with the population, to get them to understand that we are here to stay this time," he said.
Once Marjah 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 the town and surrounding villages.
The Afghans' ability to restore those services is crucial to the success of the operation and to preventing the Taliban from returning.
Tribal elders have pleaded for NATO to finish the operation quickly and spare civilians - an appeal that offers some hope the townspeople will cooperate with Afghan and international forces once the Taliban are gone.
At the Pentagon, a senior US official said Afghan president Hamid Karzai had signed off on the attack.
Another defence official said Karzai had been informed of planning for the operation well in advance. The official said it marked a first in terms of both sharing information prior to the attack and planning collaboration with the Afghan government.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because there were not authorised to speak publicly.
The second official said the number of Afghan security forces in the district have roughly doubled since Obama's first infusion of some 10,000 Marines in southern Afghanistan last year.
The Marjah offensive involves close combat in extremely difficult terrain, that official said.
A close grid of wide canals dug by the United States as an aid project decades ago make the territory a particularly rich agricultural prize, but complicate the advance of U.S. forces.
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 ahead of the assault.
For weeks, US commanders had signalled their intention to attack Marjah in hopes that civilians would seek shelter.
Residents said earlier that Taliban fighters were preventing them from leaving, warning the roads were planted with land mines to slow the NATO advance.
Still, many people fled anyway for the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, 20 miles (30 kilometres) to the northeast. They told journalists they had to leave quickly and secretly to avoid recrimination from Taliban commanders.
Some said they slipped out of town when Taliban commanders weren't watching.
Those who made it to Lashkar Gah said they had fled without their belongings and that members of family had been left behind.
"We were not allowed to come here. We haven't brought any of our belongings; we just tried to get ourselves out," said Bibi Gul, an elderly woman who arrived with three of her sons. She left three more sons behind in Marjah.
Marjah is a major supply base for the Taliban insurgents and a centre of their opium-poppy business. Up to 1,000 militants are believed to be holed up there.