Thousands of US marines are taking part in an assault deep in Taliban territory in what is the biggest military offensive of Barack Obama's presidency.
Operation River Liberty is intended to seize the entire lower Helmand River valley, heartland of the Taliban insurgency and the world's biggest heroin producing region.
‘The intent is to go big, go strong and go fast, and by doing so we are going to save lives on both sides,’ Brigadier-General Larry Nicholson, commander of the marines in southern Afghanistan, told his staff before the operation.
Helicopters landed marines in the early morning darkness at locations throughout the valley where entrenched fighters have defied NATO forces for years.
The US says the operation by foreign ground troops is on a scale unseen in Afghanistan since the Soviet withdrawal in 1989.
‘Towns that were the Taliban heartland will fall. They will fall quickly. And hopefully they will fall without a shot. That's our intent,’ Brigadier-General Nicholson said.
The 10,000 marines in Helmand Province, 8,500 of whom arrived in the last two months, form the biggest wave of an escalation ordered by Mr Obama.
The new US president has declared the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan to be the main foreign threat to the US.
Under Mr Obama, the US force in Afghanistan is more than doubling this year, from 32,000 at the start of 2009 to an anticipated 68,000 troops by year's end, many of them diverted from Iraq.
Other Western countries have about 33,000 troops in Afghanistan.
US soldier captured in Afghanistan
A US soldier is believed to have been captured by insurgents in Afghanistan.
It is believed to be the first time militants abducted an American soldier in Afghanistan since US troops were deployed in 2001.
US military spokeswoman Captain Elizabeth Mathias said: 'A US soldier who has been missing since June 30 from his assigned unit is believed to have been captured by militant forces.
'We are using all of our available resources to find him and provide for his safe return.'
She could not give more information, including the province where the soldier went missing.
'We are not providing further details to protect the soldier's situation and well-being,' she said.
