UK forces seize key canal crossings in Afghan surge

HUNDREDS of British troops seized key canal crossings in Afghanistan yesterday, as part of the US-led operation to wrest the initiative from insurgents in Helmand province.

The British push, one of the largest UK forces have made in the Taleban heartland, is part of a wider offensive launched by thousands of US marines on Thursday.

They met little resistance on the first day of Operation Khanjar, or "Strike of the Sword", the first big test of US president Barack Obama's new strategy to defeat the Taleban and its allies and stabilise Afghanistan.

Their objective is to seize virtually all of the lower Helmand River valley, the world's biggest opium poppy-producing area, and hold the ground they win, something UK-led Nato troops have so far been unable to do.

Violence in the insurgency is at its highest since the Taleban's fall from power in 2001, and the offensive, in the short term at least, is meant to provide a secure environment for the 20 August presidential election.

In the longer term, US and Nato troops want to engage with local populations as part of a new counter-insurgency strategy under General Stanley McChrystal, appointed as the new commander of foreign troops in Afghanistan after conventional warfare tactics failed.

With new tactics to win over the Afghan population and new commanders in place, the US military hopes the operation will mark the turning point of a war some in Washington have admitted they are not winning.

In yesterday's operation, UK soldiers seized 13 canal crossings with an airborne assault north of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah. A further 800 British troops began pushing north towards Gereshk, Helmand's main industrial city.

An MoD spokesman said: "Taking control of the crossings will allow British troops to prevent insurgents' movements between Helmand's two largest cities, Gereshk and Lashkar Gah, and will ultimately improve security and freedom of movement for the local people."

Insurgents launched a series of attacks against Welsh Guards troops during their operation to seize the canal crossings, and almost 100 roadside bombs were found and made safe.

Scattered clashes were reported as US marines fanned out through towns and mud-brick villages in the Helmand River valley, a crescent of opium poppy and wheat fields criss-crossed by the canals.

Most of the fighting was around the town of Garmsir, where a spokesman for international forces in Afghanistan said there had been an engagement between marines and insurgents. There was no information about casualties.

One US marine was killed and several wounded on Thursday, while an Afghan man was shot and wounded when he repeatedly ignored warnings to stop as he approached a group of marines in Garmsir.

As the operation entered its second day, US units secured control of the district centres of Nawa and Garmsir, and negotiated entry into Khan Neshin, the capital of Rig district.

Captain Bill Pelletier said: "They waited for the local and village elders (outside Khan Neshin] and with their permission they went in and now are engaged in talks."

As the marines in the village of Nawa sat for a meeting with 20 Afghan men and boys who were squatting on the ground, they listened as a list of their concerns came in a form of questions.

"Are you going to enter our houses?" asked Mohammad Nabi, 25, who was there with five of his younger brothers. "We are afraid that you will leave, and the Taleban will come back," he said.

One elder asked the marines whether they would stop them saying prayers, while others described the local police as predatory thieves not to be trusted.