Nato and Afghan troops fighting the Taliban in southern Afghanistan still face stiff resistance in parts of Marjah and may need 25 to 30 days to secure the entire area, a Nato commander said on Thursday. Major General Nick Carter, the British commander of Nato forces in southern Afghanistan, described the huge military operation in Helmand province as at "the end of the beginning" and said it would take about three months to get "a pretty fair idea about whether we've been successful."
While some areas around the Taliban stronghold of Marjah have been cleared of fighters, he told reporters at the Pentagon by video link from Afghanistan that "in Marjah itself there remains stiff resistance from the insurgents." Carter cited encouraging signs of progress by Afghan and Nato forces in parts of Marjah but added, "I guess it will be some days before we can be completely confident that Marjah is secure."
"I guess it will take us another 25 to 30 days to be entirely sure that we have secured that which needs to be secured, and we probably won't know for about 120 days whether or not the population is entirely convinced by the degree of commitment that their government is showing to them," he said.