About 400 U.S. troops from the 5th Stryker Brigade as well as 250 Afghan soldiers and their 30 Canadian trainers moved into positions northeast of the town.
No casualties were reported. Large plumes of smoke could be seen in the area, and reporters traveling with the U.S. unit could hear the distant rattle of 50-caliber machine gun fire and detonations from MK-19s, which fire 40 millimeter grenades from Stryker vehicles.
It sounds like a couple companies of US troops with support troops and a really stripped down Afghan battalion (three weak light infantry companies with no supporting heavy weapons).
The main attack is pending and we and the Taliban are competing over the question of civilians in Marjah:
U.S. officials have not said when the main attack on the town of some 80,000 people will take place but have nonetheless heavily publicized plans to attack, causing hundreds of people to flee the opium-producing center in advance of the fighting.
On Tuesday, however, Taliban militants prevented townspeople from leaving Marjah, as families huddled inside their homes, witnesses said.
This should tell you a lot, eh? We want the civilians out of the way so we can go after the Taliban armed men; while the Taliban want the civilians around so they can be killed as collateral damage and provide a propaganda victory for the enemy.
As I've written many times, when civilians are killed accidentally because we are targetting the enemy, it is the enemy's responsibility for those civilian casualties. We are not obligated under the laws of war to refuse to fight because civilians might die.
Not that we don't have to adapt to the reality that the enemy's hostage tactic works and we are blamed by human rights organization and Afghan civilians for deaths rightly the fault of the Taliban.
This offensive will be a test of our gentle methods. I don't think we have much of a choice to do it this way, but it will be a test.
