US Marines from 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment react as an improvised explosive device is found and detonated by Marine engineers as they try to enter the city of Marjah, Saturday. (Inset) A US Marine from Bravo Company of 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, gestures during a gun battle. – AP/Reuters MARJAH, Afghanistan – Thousands of US Marines and Afghan soldiers stormed the Taliban stronghold of Marjah by air and ground Saturday, meeting only scattered resistance but facing a daunting thicket of bombs and booby traps that slowed the allied advance through the town. The massive offensive was aimed at establishing Afghan government's authority over the biggest southern town under militant control and breaking the Taliban grip over a wide area of their southern heartland. Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, NATO commander of forces in southern Afghanistan, said Afghan and coalition troops, aided by 60 helicopters, made a “successful insertion” into Marjah in southern Helmand province. He said the operation was going “without a hitch.” Thousands of British, US and Canadian troops also swept into Taliban areas to the north of Marjah, seeking to clear a wide swath of villages that had been under Taliban control for several years. No coalition casualties had been reported more than 12 hours after the initial airborne assault, but NATO said three US soldiers were killed Saturday in a bombing elsewhere in southern Afghanistan. At least 20 insurgents were reported killed in the Helmand operation, said Gen. Sher Mohammad Zazai, the commander of Afghan forces in the region. Troops have recovered Kalashnikov rifles, heavy machine guns and grenades from 11 insurgents captured so far. The few civilians who ventured out to talk to the Marines said teams of Taliban fighters were falling back deeper into the town, perhaps to try to regroup and mount harassment attacks to prevent the government from rushing in aid and public services - a key step in the operation. The long-awaited assault on Marjah is the biggest offensive since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan and is a major test of a new NATO strategy focused on protecting civilians. The attack is also the first major combat operation since President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 US reinforcements here in December to try to turn the tide of the war. President Hamid Karzai called on Afghan and international troops “to exercise absolute caution to avoid harming civilians,” including avoiding airstrikes in areas where civilians are at risk. In a statement, he also called on insurgent fighters to renounce violence and reintegrate into civilian life. A Taliban spokesman insisted the insurgents were still resisting the allied assault and that the town remained under their control. “The Taliban are there and they are fighting. All of Marjah is still under Taliban control,” Qari Yousef Ahmadi told the AP by phone. He declined to say how many Taliban fighters remained in the town but dismissed NATO accounts as “propaganda.” Lt. Col. Brian Christmas, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, said US troops faced sustained gun battles in four areas of the town, including the western suburb of Sistani where India Company faced “some intense fighting.” To the east, Kilo Company was inserted by helicopter but was then “significantly engaged” as the Marines fanned out from the landing zone. Marine commanders had said they expected between 400 to 1,000 insurgents – including more than 100 foreign fighters – to be holed up in Marjah. The town of 80,000 people, about 360 miles (610 kilometers) southwest of Kabul, is the linchpin of the militants' logistical and opium
