Taliban flee U.S. Marines onslaught in Afghanistan

By Jon Hemming

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents are fleeing south towards the Afghan border with Pakistan in the face of a U.S. Marines offensive in volatile Helmand province, the NATO commander in Afghanistan said on Monday.

U.S. Marines have been pushing south from the former Taliban stronghold of Garmsir in Helmand for a month in an operation meant to cut off insurgent infiltration routes from Pakistan.

"They have shown under some amount of pressure they flee to their sanctuaries," General Dan McNeill told a news conference.

"In the last two days we have had many reports ... that the insurgents after experiencing these several weeks of pressure below Garmsir are trying to flee to the south perhaps to go back to sanctuaries in another country," he said.

While McNeill was careful not to name any country, the only nation with which Helmand shares a border is Pakistan.

Mainly British troops have been battling the Taliban in Helmand since March 2006, capturing a string of towns in the fertile strip along the Helmand River cutting through the desert.

But Garmsir, the southermost town of any size in Helmand, and its surrounding villages had previously evaded capture.

Washington dispatched 3,200 U.S. Marines to Afghanistan in March to bolster mainly British, Canadian and Dutch troops in southern Afghanistan after other NATO allies failed to come up with reinforcements.