US begins major offensive in Afghanistan

US MARINES hiked through searing heat taking fire from small pockets of militants after landing in the Taliban-controlled southern region of tree-lined fields, mud homes and crisscrossing waterways in the first major operation under President Barack Obama’s strategy to stabilise Afghanistan.

Elsewhere, the military announced that insurgents were believed to have captured a US soldier missing in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday.

Operation Khanjar, or “Strike of the Sword,” was launched shortly after 1am yesterday, as thousands of marines poured from helicopters and armoured vehicles into Taliban-controlled villages in Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold and the world’s largest opium poppy-producing area.