Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan – Thousands of U.S. Marines and Afghan soldiers traveling in helicopters and mine-resistant vehicles began punching into a key Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan early Saturday, as one of the largest operations to assert government control over this country got underway.
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The first wave of Marines and Afghan soldiers swooped into the farming community of Marja at about 2 a.m. Saturday local time (4:30 p.m. Eastern), their CH-53 Super Stallion transport helicopters landing amid clouds of dust on fallow fields. As the troops, weighed down with ammunition and supplies, lumbered out and set up defensive positions, AV-8B Harrier fighter jets and AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters circled overhead in the moonless sky.
Subsequent waves of troops were expected to alight in other parts of Marja in the hours before dawn. At sunrise, hundreds more Marines and Afghan soldiers plan to enter Marja by land, using mobile bridges to ford irrigation canals — built by U.S. engineers 50 years ago — that have served as defensive moats for the Taliban. Heavily armored mine-sweeping trucks and specially outfitted tanks will try to carve a path through a belt of makeshift bombs buried around the town.
The Marines entering Marja are with some of the first new military units to arrive in Afghanistan since last fall, when President Obama authorized the deployment of 30,000 additional troops to combat a growing insurgency. The operation is intended to deprive the Taliban of a haven in Helmand province, which military intelligence officials say is home to numerous bombmaking facilities and drug-processing labs.
We should all be mispalel that HaShem keep our soldiers safe.
A hearty ‘omein!’ to what Pesach has written.
May Hashem also preserve and protect our brave Israeli soldiers, too, who work so hard to protect the borders and all the inhabitants of EY.
Havai mispalel bishloma shel malches!! Hashem should help they should be able to return home very shortly and safe
ly and behind them a safe Afghanistan
Obama forced the marines to announce the raid and allow most of the “Civillian” terrorists and drug growers to leave the city without being checked. The Taliban had time to plant IEDs which killed three US Marines, BDE. Now the Taliban are in Pakistan celebrating the stupid Obama for saving their lives. This war will be waged dumber than Vietnam. Bush won Iraq before he left office. Afganistan operations are being run only by Obama.