U.S. Marines launch key operation in south Afghanistan

By Peter Graff

SORKHDOZ, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Thousands of U.S. Marines stormed deep into Taliban territory in an Afghan valley on Thursday, marking the start of a major new effort by the Obama administration to regain the initiative in the war.

The Marines met little resistance on day one of Operation Khanjar, or Strike of the Sword, to seize almost all the lower Helmand River valley, heartland of the Taliban insurgency and the world's biggest opium poppy producing region.

One U.S. Marine was killed and several others were wounded during the day, the Marines said in a statement, adding that they had not received any confirmed reports of civilian casualties or damage to property.

The Taliban vowed that thousands of militants would fight back against the offensive by U.S. forces backed by Afghan and British troops.

The Marines said they anticipated violence would rise in the days ahead.

"I expect we are going to see enemy pretty soon," said Captain Junwei Sun, commander of a unit which moved into the village of Sorkhdoz, where old men crouched in clusters on the road, worrying prayer beads and observing the Marines.

"You come in pretty heavy, with helicopters and stuff, they do not want to test us. But I expect once we settle down they will try something," Sun said.

"It's always like that. The calm before the storm. Then we take care of the storm."

U.S. SOLDIER BELIEVED CAPTURED

Also on Thursday, the U.S. military said 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.

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.

In swiftly seizing and holding onto so much of the Helmand valley, U.S. commanders hope to accomplish what overstretched NATO troops had failed to achieve over several years, and help secure Afghanistan for an August 20 presidential election.

But launching such a bold operation carries great risk. A protracted, bloody fight could erode support for the war in the United States, among its NATO allies and Afghans.

Taliban fighters have had years to reinforce positions among the valley's irrigation ditches and canals but U.S. and NATO commanders hope a rapid, decisive victory in Helmand will prove the tipping point of the war.

Violence in the Taliban-led insurgency is at its highest since the militants' ouster from power in 2001.