One U.S. Marine Killed, Several Injured As Operation Khanjar Continues In Afghanistan

July 3, 2009 8:11 a.m. EST

Helmand, Afghanistan (AHN) - One American Marine has been killed as U.S. and Afghan forces on Friday continued their massive offensive deeper into Helmand River valley. The assault, the first major Afghan operation by the Obama administration, is part of an overall effort to secure militant strongholds ahead of Afghanistan's national elections next month.

Nearly 4,000 Marines and about 600 Afghan soldiers are expanding their sweep of southern Afghanistan, securing the Garmsir, Nawa, and Rig districts.

One Marine has died in action and several others wounded in the offensive. No civilian casualties have been reported, according to the Pentagon, and U.S. and Afghan forces have refrained from using artillery and other indirect fire weapons. No air strikes were conducted, but the 82nd Airborne Division Combat Brigade provided aviation support.

Called Operation Khanjar or Strike of the Sword, the operation was launched on Thursday, two days after American forces withdrew from the cities of Iraq, and less than two months before Afghanistan's Aug. 20 presidential elections.

Similar NATO operations are underway in other parts of Helmand and Kandahar, such as the British led Operation Panchai Palang launched last week.

Over 90 percent of Afghanistan's opium is harvested in Helmand, where militants support their activities from one of the world's largest poppy fields. Most of the crop is made into black tar opium and then smuggled out of the country to be processed into heroin. The province's opium economy constitute half of miltant funding, according to the Pentagon.

"Where we go we will stay, and where we stay, we will hold, build and work toward transition of all security responsibilities to Afghan forces," Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, commanding general of Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan, said in a statement. "The Taliban offer no future, no hope, and we will work to provide immediate security gains to the local citizens of the Helmand River Valley."

The offensive in Helmand coincides with the reported abduction by militants of an American soldier in eastern Afghanistan. No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping in Paktika province, which is near the Pakistan border, and the Pentagon has not confirmed reports of the incident.

The United States is currently increasing its troops in Afghanistan by 21,000. The new troops will train Afghan Security Forces following a shift in the U.S. mission to training and increasing the size of the Afghan Army to 134,000, and the police force to 82,000 by 2011.

There are currently 57,000 American troops in Afghanistan, 28,850 of which are in NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Violence in the war-torn nation is at the highest level since the 2001 U.S. invasion, and is expected to continue increasing.

"Some of this [violence] will go up, because we are going to go after their sanctuaries and safe havens as we must. There are some difficult times ahead," Army Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. Central Command, has said.