(CNN) -- U.S. troops have launched a "major operation" against Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, U.S. military officials announced in Afghanistan early Thursday.
U.S. Marines gather for a briefing in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, on Wednesday.


About 4,000 Americans, mostly from the Marines, and 650 Afghan soldiers and police launched Operation Khanjar -- "strike of the sword" -- in the Helmand River

...sure...oh, you mean with resolutions, yep, they're working miracles with North Korea...

CAMP DWYER, Afghanistan (AFP) — Thousands of US Marines poured into Afghanistan's Taliban heartlands in an air and ground assault that marked a high-risk test for President Barack Obama's new war plan.

Dozens of aircraft ferried out US forces from bases before dawn, aiming to take control of insurgent bastions of Helmand province in the country's south ahead of landmark Afghan elections next month.

As the offensive got under way, the military said that an American soldier who had been missing since Tuesday was believed to have been captured in Paktika Province, in eastern Afghanistan. A spokesman for the Taliban could not confirm that the soldier was being held by militants.

Over the past several years, British forces have struggled to permanently wrest territory in Helmand away from entrenched Taliban insurgents. The fertile province leads the nation in poppy cultivation and has become a cash cow for insurgents involved in the drug trade.

However, Helmand’s rich agriculture land and large population also make it attractive as an initial target for the new US-led counterinsurgency push, say analysts.