US troops deployed in Afghanistan have launched a major operation against the Taliban in Helmand province in the south. ‘Operation Khanjar’ (Sword Strike) has 4,000 US soldiers and 650 Afghan police and military. Fifty aircraft are involved, mostly supplied by NATO.

The US military hopes to succeed where NATO forces have failed for years. This involves taking control of the whole of the lower valley of the Helmand, the heart of the Taliban insurgency and the prime region in the world for the production of opium.

Helmand provides 90 percent of the world’s production of the drug. Its trafficking and derivatives such as heroin are a material resource network for the insurgents.

Wave after wave of helicopters landed the marines in the middle of the night in several places in the valley, where wheat fields lay side by side with opium fields.

The operation is expected to convince the Afghans that the Afghan security forces, backed by international forces, provide a better long-term future than what it could be under the radical Islamists. The operation will last 36 hours during its initial stage and will provide security in the Helmand Valley before the August 20 elections.

The Taliban engage in extortion and taxation of Afghan poppy farmers. Taxation comes at a minimum of 10 percent. The Taliban are believed to have been enjoying a take of as much as $300 million a year from Afghanistan’s opium trade. With that amount in the hands of the Taliban, it has been possible for them to sustain their military operations in southern Afghanistan year after year.

Image

Via The New York Times