Combat· Afghanistan War (Op ENDURING FREEDOM)
Battle of Marjah
Marjah was a Taliban stronghold and opium-trading hub in central Helmand Province, the target of the largest offensive of the Afghan surge, mounted to wrest the town and its surrounding farmland from insurgent control and demonstrate the new counterinsurgency strategy.
Marines, with Afghan and coalition forces, assaulted into the dense agricultural terrain of irrigation canals, mud compounds, and booby-trapped fields, clearing the town against an enemy that fought, withdrew, and seeded the ground with improvised explosive devices. The plan called for a rapid clearing to be followed immediately by the installation of Afghan governance, the much-publicized "government in a box," to hold what the Marines took. The fighting to clear Marjah was hard and the follow-through proved slower and more difficult than hoped. Marjah became the signature battle of the surge, a test case for the clear-hold-build approach and a measure of both its promise and its limits in the Helmand campaign.
Record no. 1