This story tells of one company deployed to the border:
United States soldiers descended on a mountain ridge on Sunday, quickly setting up fortified posts and mortar positions overlooking a major transport route used by insurgents linked to the Taliban, as the American-led coalition pressed a major offensive that has killed dozens of suspected militants.
It was the first time in several years that soldiers from the coalition had ventured into the Baghran Valley, in the northern part of Helmand Province.
Troops from the Second Battalion, 87th Infantry, 10th Mountain Division poured out of CH-47 Chinook helicopters in the early morning and scouted the mountain for militants.
The position will allow American forces to block the movement of the suspected Taliban fighters and supplies, said one of the officers, Lt. Col. Chris Toner.
More than 10,000 soldiers from the coalition are spread out over four southern provinces — Helmand, Oruzgan, Kandahar and Zabul — in a military operation aimed at quelling a surge in attacks by insurgent forces. It is the largest offensive since the ouster of the Taliban in late 2001.
"This is the decisive part of the operation, because if we do not get on the mountain, we will not be able to accomplish this mission," said Capt. Jared Wilson, whose troops are involved in the operation.
What is most interesting is that we didn't block the passes before the enemy offensive to try and keep them out of Afghanistan. We let them in and we killed them in large numbers. And having bloodied the foreign fighters recruited and equipped in Pakistan, we are blocking their reinforcement and retreat paths.
Unable to pursue them into Pakistan and unable to rely on Pakistan to do the job for us, we are pinning them inside Afghanistan where we can kill even more of them. This is the decisive part, indeed.
