Two British soldiers and two police were killed in southern Afghanistan where thousands of troops have moved into Taliban strongholds ahead of August polls, officials said Sunday.
Afghan, US, British and Danish security forces are pushing into parts of Helmand, an opium-producing province where the militants have established a firm grip, in some of the largest operations since the Taliban's 2001 ouster.
The forces have met with little resistance, although some 200 Marines have seen days of heavy fighting, commanders said, adding that many areas have been seeded with mines, a commonly used Taliban guerrilla tactic. "The main aims of the operations are to extend security throughout the areas so as to allow the local population to enjoy a normal life and take part in the forthcoming elections free from intimidation and violence," a British military statement said.
Two British soldiers were killed near the town of Gereshk in the centre of the province at the weekend, one in a rocket-propelled grenade attack and the other in an explosion, the Ministry of Defence in London said in a statement. However, the multinational Nato-led force in which the British military is a significant partner said that both were killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) on Saturday.
The soldiers were involved in Operation Panther's Claw, a British-led campaign launched on June 23 to secure an area between Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, and Gereshk further north. The operation kicked off with 350 troops in its first phase but now involves 3,000 British soldiers along with around 400 Danes and more than 300 Afghan soldiers, spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nick Richardson told AFP. The latest stage started Friday, when more than 750 British and Afghan troops began sweeping through the area in vehicles and on foot, uncovering more than 50 IEDs in one area, a statement from the British military said.
"Unable to match the firepower and speed of assault, the insurgents have left IEDs in their wake," it said. Two other British soldiers involved in the same operation were killed in an explosion on Wednesday, one of them the first commanding officer to die in operations since 1991. Around 4,000 US Marines, newly deployed to Afghanistan, are meanwhile on the fourth day of a major operation south of Lashkar Gah were they had teamed up with nearly 600 Afghan forces. They had encountered little resistance except for a pocket at Mian Poshteh, a key canal and road junction in Garmsir district, where a Marine was killed by hostile fire on Thursday. "They have been fighting to hold that position," Major Dan Gaskell told AFP at nearby Camp Delhi.
He said about 40 Taliban fighters were using small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and rockets against the Marines, who have based themselves in a walled compound. The Marines were deployed in recent weeks as part of US President Barack Obama's aggressive new strategy to turn the tide on a protracted conflict with the extremist Taliban, who were removed from government in late 2001.
Two of the Afghan policemen involved in the Helmand operations were killed in a mine explosion on Saturday, interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told reporters, without being able to give details.
"Significant resistance is not being seen," he said. "Joint security forces are quickly moving ahead." He and other officials could not give numbers for any insurgent casualties. "The Taliban do not have the ability to face such a big force and power," Afghan army corps commander General Shair Mohammad Zazai told AFP.
But US commanders say they expect their troops to soon be hit by counter-attacks. "The enemy assumes that within several days we'll be leaving but we're not going anywhere," said Lieutenant Colonel Christian Cabaniss, in charge of the US operations around Garmsir.
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