Marines link up in Afghan Taliban stronghold

Great to hear they can refuse orders to fire high explosive rounds and change to smoke bombs if they fear civilians are in the area. Not heard this kind of reporting before. The Taliban will no doubt use civilians as shields more frequently though.

yeah, those taliban bastards will use civilians as a shield. 99.99% sure.

“When it is daytime, there is nonstop contact until the sun goes down ... every day,”

Why no night time fighting? Still no electric in Afghanistan?

Generally, the taliban lack ability to fight effectively at night, night vision technology being expensive to obtain and difficult to maintain over time.

goddog just got shot down by ultradude, besides if they did have electricity the nato forces would cut off the electricity for that very reason ultradude gave.

nandakandamanda wrote- "Great to hear they can refuse orders to fire high explosive rounds and change to smoke bombs if they fear civilians are in the area. "

A request is not an order.

The Taliban probably killed the civilians themselves and placed them in buildings their outposts destroyed by the Americans. Good job US Marines, you have questionable manners but sure can fight!

YuriOtani

Good job US Marines, you have questionable manners but sure can fight!

Marines have manners?! Learned something new from Yuri today... : )

dearjohn, good point.

Also Tuesday, U.S. artillery fired non-lethal smoke rounds to disperse Taliban fighters in Marjah—the first time cannons have been used in the fight to drive the militants from their logistical and opium poppy-smuggling base. Commanders refused a Marine request to fire deadly high-explosive rounds because the unit on the ground could not be sure civilians weren’t at risk.

Should have used non-non-lethal rounds to remove the Taliban fighters permanently. If you're in a Taliban held opium smuggling base I can say, with some level of certainty, that you are not an innocent civilian.

Spokesman Tariq Ghazniwal extended an invitation by e-mail to foreign journalists to visit Marjah, saying the trip would “show who have the upper hand in the area.”

A top Taliban commander, Mullah Abdul Razaq Akhund, dismissed the offensive as NATO propaganda and said on the group’s Web site that Marjah was militarily insignificant.

So...you're winning but the place you're fighting for is militarily insignificant...but its a major blow against the U.S...which is only winning because Marjah doesn't really matter. It's like watching CSPAN.