U.S. Marines fan out in big south Afghanistan assault

By Peter Graff

NAWA, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Thousands of U.S. Marines stormed deep into Taliban territory in an Afghan river valley on Thursday, launching the biggest military offensive of Barack Obama's presidency.

The Marines say Operation Khanjar, or Strike of the Sword, will be decisive and is intended to seize virtually the entire lower Helmand River valley, the heartland of the Taliban insurgency and the world's biggest opium poppy producing region.

In swiftly seizing the valley and holding ground there, U.S. commanders hope to accomplish within hours what overstretched NATO troops had failed to achieve over several years, and help secure Afghanistan for an Aug. 20 presidential election after years of stalemate.

"The intent is to go big, go strong and go fast, and by doing so we are going to save lives on both sides," Brigadier-General Larry Nicholson, commander of the Marines in southern Afghanistan, told his staff before the operation.

Violence in the Taliban-led insurgency is at its highest since the Taliban's ouster in 2001. The operation marks the first big test of Washington's new regional strategy to defeat the Taliban and its allies and stabilise Afghanistan.

With new tactics to win over the Afghan population and new commanders in place, the U.S. military is hoping to turn the tide of a war some in Washington have admitted they are not winning.

The U.S. military said later on Thursday that a soldier had been missing in southeastern Afghanistan since Tuesday, before the operation in Helmand began, and was thought to have been captured by militants. The Pentagon confirmed the incident.

A Taliban commander, Mullah Sangeen, told Reuters by phone from an undisclosed location the soldier was taken as a patrol walked out of its base in Paktika province and would only be released when the U.S. military freed Taliban fighters it held.