US Marines aid NATO forces in Afghanistan

US MARINES are crossing the sands of southern Afghanistan for the first time in years, providing a boost to a NATO coalition that is growing but still short on manpower.

Some of the 2,300 marines that make up the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit helped to tame a thriving insurgency in western Iraq.

The marines are working alongside British forces in Helmand province — the world’s largest opium-poppy region and site of the fiercest Taliban resistance over the past two years.

“Our mission is to ... make Afghanistan a better place, provide some security, allow for the expansion of governance in those same areas,” said Col Peter Petronzio, the unit’s commander.

Thirteen of the 19 marines in the platoon of 1st Lt Adam Lynch, 27, served in 2006 and 2007 in Ramadi, the capital of the Anbar province in western Iraq. The vast region was once al-Qaida’s stronghold in Iraq before the militants were pushed out in early 2007.

Lt Lynch expects the marines, who arrived last month on a seven-month deployment, will help calm Helmand as well.

Taliban fighters have largely shunned head-on battles since losing hundreds of fighters in the Panjwayi region of Kandahar province in fall 2006.

The US has 32,500 troops in the country. In late 2006, Afghanistan had some 40,000 international troops. Today, that number is almost 70,000.

Some 3,500 marines arrived in Afghanistan last month; the 2,300 members of the 24th MEU are concentrating on counterinsurgency, while 1,200 marines are helping to train the Afghan police force.

The marines’ presence in southern Afghanistan is a sign neither Britain nor Canada have enough troops to control the region. But commanders and troops say the countries are working well together.

The Marines have been moving supplies and forces through Helmand by ground convoys over the past several weeks. Some convoys have taken more than 20 hours to complete, and two marines were killed by a roadside bomb on April 15.

They have also been given directions to steer clear of the region’s poppy fields so they don’t risk alienating local farmers who rely on the cash crop for their income.