Bigger Afghan Operation Yet to Come: Kandahar (City of 450,000)

[tekisui]

Source: Montreal Gazette

WASHINGTON - The United States plans a major offensive this year in the Taliban bastion of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, a senior official said Friday, calling a hard-fought ongoing operation a mere prelude.

The remarks were the latest sign that President Barack Obama's administration plans to step up the fight against the Taliban as part of its strategy of pouring thousands more troops into Afghanistan.

U.S. Marines have been leading a 15,000-strong force of U.S., Afghan and NATO forces in a nearly two-week assault in the southern Marjah area in what has been billed as the biggest operation since the September 11, 2001 attacks.

"I think the way to look at Marjah, it's the tactical prelude to larger, more comprehensive operations later this year in Kandahar City," said a senior administration official, who asked not to be named.

"It's a goal for 2010. If our overall goal for 2010 is to reverse the momentum and gain time and space for the Afghan capacity, we have to get to Kandahar this year," he said.

Kandahar, the second largest city in Afghanistan, is a cultural home to the Pashtun people and was the birthplace of the Taliban movement, which imposed an austere brand of Islam over the country from 1996 to 2001.

Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/world/Bigger+Afghan+operation+come/2618220/story.html#ixzz0gg1DCx6D

[spanone]

1. war on mo-fo's.....the killing machine will never end