US marines launch mini surge to weaken Taliban

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

US marines launch mini surge to weaken Taliban

· British troops aid attack on Afghan insurgents
· Mission aims to disrupt major smuggling routes

Declan Walsh in Garmser
The Guardian, Wednesday April 30 2008

A strike force of US marines punched through Taliban frontlines
in southern Helmand yesterday as part of an Afghan "mini surge"
intended to weaken the insurgents' grip on the war-ravaged south.

The marine force, numbered in the hundreds, exchanged fire with
Taliban fighters as they pushed through Garmser, a town abandoned
by its inhabitants in recent years and ringed by poppy fields.

The American soldiers are the core of a new 2,300-strong reserve
force under the control of the US commander of international
troops in Afghanistan, General Dan McNeill. The Helmand mission
aims to disrupt drugs and smuggling routes into nearby Pakistan.

The marines landed before dawn yesterday, some trundling in on
Humvee trucks and others arriving by helicopter. Within a few
hours, insurgents armed with guns and rocket launchers poured
out of a local madrasa, sparking fighting that lasted several
hours.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/30/afghanistan.usa

[Ian David]

1. Mini-surge tries to eat Mini-Mr. Bigglesworth n/t

[LynnTheDem]

2. Will George W. bUsh announce "mini success"?

What a total fuck-up.

Iraq.

Afghanistan.

And George W. bUsh himself.

Total complete utter fuck-up.

[heliarc]

3. eensy weensy surge nt

[hatrack]

4. So, should we expect a mini-triumph?

Maybe President Nero can parade through the streets of DC in a mini-chariot, wearing a wreath of miniature laurel leaves.