Afghanistan Offensive

Nearly 4,000 marines and sailors from Camp Lejeune continue to carry out the biggest military operation in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. It's been an important week leading up to Independence Day - pulling out of Iraqi cities, while at the same time stepping up strategies in Afghanistan.

By: Tara Mergener CBS News | WNCT-On Your Side
Published: July 03, 2009

U.S. Marines are moving deeper into Taliban territory and the enemy is doing little to stop them.

These images from the second day of America's new military offensive show troops taking over villages in southern Afghanistan. The aim of the operation is not only to drive out the enemy but to win over local populations.

Not far from the Americans British soldiers continued to gain ground in a major city.

Lieutenant Colonel Nick Richardson/ British military spokesman: "3,000 British troops have been involved in the operation as a whole, which is known as ‘Operation Panther's Claw’."

During the fighting at least one U.S. Marine has been killed and in the eastern part of the country another has been kidnapped, but overall there's been little resistance from insurgents. The Taliban may have adopted its old strategy of blending into the local population and regrouping.

The US is to get some help from one of Afghanistan's neighbors.

Next week President Obama travels to Russia and that country says it will let the U.S. send weapons across Russian territory into Afghanistan.

Over the next few weeks 21-thousand more U.S. troops will be sent to Afghanistan, but defeating the insurgents may take more than military might.

The Taliban is bankrolled by rampant opium production.

The U.S. may try to develop alternate livelihoods for farmers who grow poppy crops cutting off the enemy's cash flow