In a scene straight from a Tom Clancy movie, Afghan international forces chased down several Taliban fighters as they attempted to escape the Allied onslaught. Here is an official press release I recieved this morning. Operation Moshtarak is no tangled urban fight like Fallujah, it is an open-spaces hunt for the bad guys:

Marines in Helmand

2010-02-CA-076
For Immediate Release

IJC Operational Update Feb. 16

KABUL, Afghanistan (Feb. 16) – An Afghan-international force
interdicted three vehicles in three separate engagements, resulting in
more than 10 militants killed while pursuing a Taliban commander in
Helmand province yesterday.
The joint force was sent to a rural area in the Washir district
after intelligence information revealed militants were in several
vehicles.
One of the vehicles drove away and attempted to elude the
assault force.  As the combined force attempted to stop it, weapons were
pointed at the coalition force through the open car windows. The
coalition force engaged and killed the militants who were in the car.
After the fire fight the ammunition inside the vehicle continued to
detonate, causing the assault force to pull back to a safe distance.
Another associated vehicle, with one occupant, drove out of the
village, with the coalition force in pursuit.  The car stopped and the
occupant drew an automatic rifle and attempted to fire on the force who
then killed the militant.
A third vehicle was located, and armed militants got out of both
sides of the vehicle and attempted to engage the pursuing force.  The
joint force returned fire killing several militants.
As the assault force engaged the third car it received machine
gun and rocket propelled grenade fire from the nearby village.  As the
fire fight continued militants from the village tried to approach the
burning vehicle several times, but were driven off as explosives and
ammunition inside the vehicle continued to detonate.
To reduce the possibility of civilian casualties in the village
the combined force then broke off the fight and returned to base.

-30-

V/R

SFC(OR-7) Kevin P Bell
IJC Public Affairs Office
Media Operations NCO

More than 10,000 Afghan, British and American soldiers, along with United States Marines attacked into Afghanistan’s poppy-growing heartland in the predawn darkness Saturday morning.

Third Battalion, 6th Marines leapt into combat, hopping over the maze of canals and minefields in 60 helicopters of  Marine Air Group 40 and Task Force Pegasus, the Combat Aviation Brigade of the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. The Marines were on the outskirts of Marjah’s bazaar before enemy fighters could get their pants on.

Major General Nick Carter, NATO commander for Southern Afghanistan said this about the initial assault in an interview early on Saturday: “The amount of aviation that was used and the way it was used, the number of objectives, and the extent to which the enemy was dislocated in terms of that overwhelming arrival between 2AM and dawn this morning was impressive, to say the least.”

More Marines and soldiers advanced on the ground closing the vice on the enemy. The advance on the ground was slow through heavily mined poppy fields. The danger to our men will not be from enemy counterattacks. The danger in this operation will come from hidden IEDs and home-made bombs.

On the eve of the attack, Taliban leaders, knowing that their options were slowly being eliminated, issued orders for civilians to remain in Marjah. Many families defied these orders, hopped in cars and trucks when the Taliban commanders were not watching and fled.

“We were not allowed to come here. We haven’t brought any of our belongings; we just tried to get ourselves out,” said Bibi Gul, an elderly woman who arrived in nearby Lashkar Gah with three of her sons along with hundreds of other fleeing civilians. The Afghan government is prepared to shelter 7,000 families in nearby towns.

With their hostages gone and Marines on the horizon, most of the Taliban will attempt to slip away to fight another day. They will scatter to the winds and hope that their hidden explosives will inflict many allied casualties. These cowards will run.

And, with every Taliban coward that flees the fight, the level of violence will be decreased; thus reducing the chance of civilian casualties. General McChrystal is brilliant. If the enemy stands and fights – he will surely die. If he runs, he will lose his source of income and control over the people of Helmand.

The kinetic portion of Operation Moshtarak will be violent and fast. The Taliban will be quickly ejected from Central Helmand. But, Operation Moshtarak will last quite some time. Provisional Reconstruction teams, the Afghan National Army and Afghan Police will saturate the area with the sole intent of improving the lives of the people of Helmand. And, they will stay. The Taliban will not be allowed to return.

Much like a cancer patient, surgery is often traumatic and dangerous, but months of chemo-therapy are necessary to completely remove the malignancy. In the coming months, the Afghan government, NATO and the United States will work tirelessly to improve the lives of the people of this agricultural area. If they are successful, the Taliban will become irrelevant.

Without a population to support their cause, they will be defeated.