Afghan govt takes control of Taliban stronghold

French soldiers of the 21st RIMA use their riflescopes while on joint patrol with unseen Afghan soldiers in a market of Showal town in the Nad-e-Ali district of southern Afghanistan's Helmand province yesterday. Photo: AFP

The Afghan government took official control of the southern Taliban stronghold of Marjah yesterday, installing an administrator and raising the national flag while US-led troops rooted out final pockets of militants.
The ceremony occurred in a central market as US Marines and Afghan troops slogged through bomb-laden fields in northern parts of the town. Some 700 residents gathered to see Abdul Zahir Aryan formally appointed as the top government official in Marjah, according to US officials at the event.
Aryan and a team of advisers held their first meeting in the town Monday and have been staying overnight in a building there since Tuesday, said Marlin Harbinger, the senior US government representative for Helmand province, which contains Marjah.
"Today's event was the civilian Afghan government re-establishing itself officially in front of the local residents," Harbinger said. The Afghan army had previously raised the country's green-and-red flag nearby, but that was only a claim of military control over that neighbourhood, he said.
The ceremony opened with a reading from the Quran, and then Aryan and the Helmand governor pledged to those gathered that they were ready to listen to their needs and eager to provide them with basic services that they didn't have under the Taliban.
After the ceremony, the generals and high-level officials departed in helicopters, but Aryan remained.
The mass assault in southern Helmand province, with 15,000 Nato and Afghan troops, is the largest military operation in Afghanistan since the US-led ouster of the Taliban regime in 2001.
Nato's strategy is to rout Taliban militants from the town, which had served as a logistical base and drug trafficking hub, restore the Afghan government's presence, and rush in public services in a bid to win over the confidence of local communities.
In the north Thursday, the Marines' progress was slowed by difficult terrain with no roads, few tracks and many hidden mines, but there was no gunfire by midmorning. Several armoured vehicles fell into irrigation canals while others were damaged by roadside bombs.
About 100 fighters are believed to have regrouped into the 45-square kilometre area known as Kareze, according to commanders with the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines Regiment. The Marines and their Afghan partners are working to secure the area, believed to be the last significant pocket of Taliban insurgents in town.
The last few days have been relatively calm throughout Marjah, with limited engagement by insurgents, as troops secured areas they had already taken and moved into position to tackle the final insurgent holdouts.