Word: helmander
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...Helmand is a primary opium-growing area...
...months, NATO officers were signaling a major assault on Marja, hoping that that this tactic would draw the Taliban out of the heavily populated areas around the Helmand River - a major opium poppy growing area and a source of Taliban funds - and enable coalition and Afghan forces to re-capture and establish government control over this major Taliban bastion without causing too many civilian casualties...
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...
...Brig. James Cowan, the British commander of forces in Helmand, told his troops on Thursday, "We are in this together; we will fight it together, we will see it through together. Afghans with allies, soldiers with civilians, government with people...
...offensive, when it begins in earnest, will largely be conducted on foot. That's because the terrain surrounding Marja is latticed with canals built by the U.S. a generation ago to expand agriculture to 250,000 acres in the Helmand River valley. It also gave the region the nickname "Little America." The canals and ditches created a network of bridges unable to support armored vehicles and gives the Taliban good places to hide IEDs - the top killer of U.S. troops in Afghanistan - and snipers. They also turned the region into lush farmland that has proven ideal for growing opium-producing...