Nato rockets killed 12 Afghan civilians on Sunday, the second day of an offensive designed to impose Afghan government authority on one of the last big Taliban strongholds in the country's most violent province.
The assault, one of Nato's biggest against the Taliban since the Afghan war began in 2001, is the first test of US President Barack Obama's plan to send 30,000 more troops to seize insurgent-held areas before a planned 2011 troop drawdown. A day after the attack started with waves of helicopters ferrying troops into the town of Marjah and the nearby Nad Ali district, US Marines came under intense fire in the heart of Marjah as they sought to root out pockets of insurgents.
The United States' top military officer on Sunday said the assault on the Taliban stronghold of Marjah in Afghanistan's Helmand province had gotten "off to a good start". "It's actually very difficult to predict (the end)," Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters during a visit to Israel. "We have from a planning standpoint talked about a few weeks, but I don't know that." "This is not focused on the Taliban, and it is a strategy not just to clear the area but to hold it and then build right behind it so that there is a civilian component here and there is a local governance," Mullen said.
Despite the best efforts, two rockets fired by Nato troops missed militants firing on them, instead slamming into a house and killing 12 people. Afghan President Hamid Karzai expressed sadness and said the victims were members of the same family. "Upon hearing the news, Hamid Karzai immediately ordered an investigation as he had previously ordered that the operation should be carefully done to prevent innocent civilians being killed," a statement from the president's office said.
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