well-equipped american force ever sent to afghanistan. this operation is only possible because of the arrival of more marines after the president s speech at west point. as the battle for marjah raises on, planning is already underway for the next phase of the operation. today marine commanders hosted a traditional meeting with senior village elders from the region. it is extremely important. the village elders are the ones that hold the most influence over the people. and i think we have seen that throughout other areas that we have worked. the elders told marine commanders that more than anything they want security, stability, and help rebuilding their city and they provided a list of projects that could show immediate results quickly winning over the population. marines say once the fighting calms down, aid will roll in and work will begin immediately on key irrigation canals that provide water to the city. there are also plans to build schools and new government
well-equipped american force ever sent to afghanistan. this operation is only possible because of the arrival of more marines after the president s speech at west point. as the battle for marjah raises on, planning is already underway for the next phase of the operation. today marine commanders hosted a traditional meeting with senior village elders from the region. it is extremely important. the village elders are the ones that hold the most influence over the people. and i think we have seen that throughout other areas that we have worked. the elders told marine commanders that more than anything they want security, stability, and help rebuilding their city and they provided a list of projects that could show immediate results quickly winning over the population. marines say once the fighting calms down, aid will roll in and work will begin immediately on key irrigation canals that provide water to the city. there are also plans to build schools and new government
moving into the southwest. all told across marjah, 60 helicopters dropping off thousands of afghan, u.s. and nato forces. now they have taken several key objectives, they tell us, major arteries, roads, junctions, some of these irrigation canals and bridges we ve been hearing so much about, moving through this area trying to root out the taliban. what are their concerns? ieds. still the number one concern. the feeling now is that the area is riddled with ieds. we know they are using some heavy equipment to punch through these mine fields to avoid casualties for coalition forces. a lot of continuing concern about that, and a lot of concern that now is when the hard work will begin getting the afghan government to move in and provide the long-term security to these people so the taliban can t come back. fred? barbara, any thought about the advantage that perhaps
trapped. reporter: the taliban has the advantage of knowing the operation s coming so they can plan and prepare for it. nato will have uav drone aircraft watching overhead. but the taliban will have been burying ieds and they ll know the fields and exactly where the troops have to go through, you know, a gap in a wall or a particular place that s going to be easier for them to get around a particular field with irrigation canals and they ll try to use that knowledge to place their ieds in the right places to target the troops. watching one of these two years ago, marines in helmand taking on the taliban close to this same area, the marines back then were able to fire heavy artillery rounds, thousands of rounds were fired and the battle lasted for a month. this time marines and other forces don t have that opportunity because they re trying to minimize civilian casualties. so the taliban are going to take advantage of that, as well. wherever there are civilians,
is going to be tough going. they can t bring armored vehicles in. they will start here, crossing the irrigation canals and very small bridges as you see. they will be on foot after getting awe of their he off h and they will be in mud walls surrounding the fields, and many of these are mud walls and irrigation canals and look at this compound here, a mud wall surrounding the compound. how do they know who is in there? they have to be careful about civilian casualties. they can t just start shelling these places. talk to me about that. the notion is that air power which is so effective in many places can t be used that strongly here. i don t think that you will see a single bomb dropped here. this is going to be foot patrols, slogging through these fields, villages, towns and these compounds, figuring out who is there, and that is when you run into the problem. they will run across ieds, snipers and ambushes, and they