New US operations in Helmand region

Thousands of Marines have poured into the Helmand region in Afghanistan. This from the Washington Post;

The mission, which involves about 4,000 Marines, is the first large-scale test of the U.S. military’s new counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan. The Marines, along with an Army brigade that is scheduled to arrive later this summer, plan to push into pockets of the country where NATO forces have not been able to maintain order. The two districts that are the initial focus of the Marine operation — Nawa and Garmser — have long been Taliban strongholds. Although British troops serving under NATO’s Afghan command have waged several battles against the insurgents in both areas over the past three years, the British lacked sufficient forces to maintain a significant presence in the districts. As a consequence, the Taliban have been able to shut down schools, drive out government officials and intimidate the local population.

The Associated Press reports that one US soldier has been missing and presumed captured since Tuesday. The Washington Times uncovers a story about the Taliban buying children to use as suicide bombers. I guess it’s their own version of the surge;

Pakistan’s top Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, is buying children as young as 7 to serve as suicide bombers in the growing spate of attacks against Pakistani, Afghan and U.S. targets, U.S. Defense Department and Pakistani officials say. A Pakistani official, who spoke on the condition that he not be named because of the sensitive nature of the topic, said the going price for child bombers was $7,000 to $14,000 – huge sums in Pakistan, where per-capita income is about $2,600 a year. “[Mehsud] has turned suicide bombing into a production output, not unlike [the way] Toyota outputs cars,” a U.S. Defense Department official told reporters recently.

After some shifting around, my son has arrived in Afghanistan, just this last weekend – so since everything is in place, the US forces there figured they can start. Let’s hope this works.

Greyhawk makes a great point – the missing soldier’s family has been notified according to CNN. So if you haven’t been notified it isn’t your relative.

Category: Terror War