KABUL, Afghanistan -- International and Afghan troops have begun a key combat phase against the insurgents in the southern Afghanistan and expect heavy fighting, officials said Monday, in an operation that is crucial to the U.S. strategy to turn around the nine-year war against the Taliban.
The allied forces were moving into two or three areas around the Kandahar city in southern Afghanistan at once to pressure the Taliban "so they don't get the chance to run away," Shah Mohammad Ahmadi, chief of Arghandab district northwest of the city, said Monday.
"Before, when we have tried to get rid of the Taliban, when we cleaned one area we found more Taliban in a different one," he said.
A top NATO officer said Sunday that the alliance a few days ago had launched its "kinetic," or combat, phase of "Operation Dragon Strike," a joint military push with Afghan forces around Kandahar intended to rid the area of insurgents and interrupt their ability to move freely and stage attacks.
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