Now Zad

(Newser) - US Marines and Afghan troops today launched the first offensive since President Obama announced an American troop surge, striking against Taliban communications and supply lines in a southern insurgent stronghold. In all, about 1,000 Marines as well as Afghan troops were taking part in the operation in Helmand provvince,...

(Newser) - A stalemate between US Marines and Taliban fighters in a small, abandoned town in southern Afghanistan could be seen as a microcosm of the war there, Michael M. Phillips writes in the Wall Street Journal. In Now Zad, a 300-strong company of Marines has traded fire with a Taliban force...