Word: afghanistan
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Shortly before dawn on Saturday, under a starry, icy desert sky in southern Afghanistan, American-led coalition forces launched the long foretold attack against the Taliban stronghold of Marja, along the Helmand River. In the biggest land and air offensive in the nine-year long war against Taliban and al-Qaeda forces, more than 15,000 coalition forces, backed by wave after wave of 90 helicopters and aircraft, sealed off Marja and seized key positions inside the town and on its periphery...
...inserted into Marja by helicopter without encountering enemy fire. "We were expecting hot landings in a few places, but there weren't any," said the Canadian who flew in on a Royal Canadian Air Force helicopter accompanying British, Estonian and Afghan troops. (See pictures of the new offensive in Afghanistan...
However, Army sources say that the Taliban ringed Marja and its surrounding network of canals, fields and roads with thousands of hidden mines and booby-traps. Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, Marine commander for southern Afghanistan told newsmen, "This may be the biggest improvised explosive device (IED) threat and largest minefield that NATO has ever faced." A British officer in Nad el-Ali reported that in one 50-m stretch of lane, his men found and disabled "dozens" of IEDs...
...their drone flights over Pakistan's lawless border region after a video was released showing Mehsud posing with a Jordanian doctor, a double agent who on Dec. 30 blew himself up along with seven CIA agents and a Jordanian intelligence officer at a U.S. base near Khost in eastern Afghanistan. Since Jan. 1, say Pakistani military officials, the unmanned drones - the most feared weapon in the U.S. arsenal - have struck 15 times inside Pakistan, usually in remote mountain hamlets that Pakistani ground forces cannot reach. (See pictures of Pakistan's vulnerable frontier with Afghanistan...
...Khyber Pass, are common bandits, while still others are sectarian, feuding with Shi'ite tribes. In general, the Pakistani Taliban are united in fighting against Islamabad, while the Afghan Taliban, with whom they are allied spiritually and often times logistically, are bent on killing American and NATO soldiers in Afghanistan...