Taliban mount tough resistance

MARJAH, Afghanistan – Outnumbered and outgunned, Taliban fighters are mounting a tougher fight than expected in Marjah, Afghan officials said Sunday, as U.S.-led forces converged on a pocket of militants in a western section of the town.

Despite ongoing fighting, the newly appointed civilian chief for Marjah said he plans to fly into the town today for the first time since the attack to begin restoring Afghan government control and winning over the population after years of Taliban rule.

With fighter jets, drones and attack helicopters roaring overhead, Marine and Afghan companies advanced Sunday on a 2-square-mile area where more than 40 insurgents were believed holed up.

“They are squeezed,” said Lt. Col. Brian Christmas, commander of 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment. “It looks like they want to stay and fight but they can always drop their weapons and slip away. That’s the nature of this war.”

Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said the U.S. and its allies had expected the Taliban to leave behind thousands of hidden explosives, which they did. But they were surprised to find that so many militants stayed to fight.

“We predicted it would take many days. But our prediction was that the insurgency would not resist that way,” Azimi told the Associated Press in Kabul.

In a statement Sunday, NATO acknowledged that insurgents were putting up a “determined resistance” in various parts of Marjah, although the overall offensive is “on track.”

Marine spokesman Lt. Josh Diddams said Sunday that Marines and Afghan troops were continuing to run into “pockets of stiff resistance” though they were making progress. Diddams said no area is completely calm yet although three markets in town – which covers about 80 square miles – are at least partially open.

“Everywhere we’ve got Marines, we’re running into insurgents,” Diddams said. In many cases, the militants are fighting out of bunkers fortified with sandbags and other materials.

NATO’s civilian chief in Afghanistan, Mark Sedwill, said the military operation was moving slowly “because of essentially the ruthlessness of the opponent we face and the rules that we’ve set for ourselves” to protect civilians.

“We could have swept through this place in a couple of days but there would have been a lot of casualties,” he said.

NATO said one service member died in a roadside bombing Sunday, bringing the number of international troops killed in the operation to 13. At least one Afghan soldier has been confirmed dead. Senior Marine officers say intelligence reports suggest more than 120 insurgents have died.

Two more service members were killed Sunday by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, though they were not related to the continuing offensive, NATO said.

Abdul Rahman Saber, chief of the local council for Marjah, said the situation in much of the town was improving – that some residents had been able to return to their homes.

Anxious to begin the task of restoring government authority, Zahir, the new district leader, said he plans to meet today with community leaders and townspeople about security, health care and reconstruction.