Afghanistan war: Marjah offensive targets opium capital

The US-led offensive that's expected to start soon in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province will be a battle not only against the Taliban but also against an insurgent-backed narcotics trade that provides a livelihood for thousands of residents.

Helmand produces more than half the world's opium, and Marjah, the town targeted in the operation, is its thriving drug capital.

Marjah illustrates the link between the Islamist insurgency and the narcotics trade: According to residents, the Taliban promote and tax the opium business and ally with the druglords who organize the distribution and export.

"Most of the population are forced by the smugglers and the Taliban to grow poppy," said Juma Gul, a 44-year-old tribal chief from Marjah, speaking by phone from the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, where he and hundreds of other residents have taken refuge ahead of the widely publicized offensive. "The Taliban pressure people to grow only poppy."

Although the operation is a military one, the greater test of the US-led planning will be a civilian campaign to show the people of Marjah that there's an alternative to poppy cultivation, heroin production and smuggling. If the military and civilian side can coordinate, it could set an example for other parts of the country.

US Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of the international military force in Afghanistan, laid out the non-military goals Sunday. "When the government re-establishes security, they (the people of Marjah) will have choices . . . on the crops they grow, they'll have the ability to move that produce to appropriate markets, they won't be limited to narco-traffickers who can force them into" the narcotics trade, he told reporters. "We're trying to make this not a military operation only, but a civilian and military operation."

Marjah and the surrounding area are the last Taliban stronghold in the central Helmand river valley, with an estimated 2,000 insurgents prepared to fight. Thousands of coalition troops will mount the first big operation since President Barack Obama announced another 30,000 troops for Afghanistan, and newly trained Afghan forces have a high profile.

"I was growing (poppy) just to feed my family," said a farmer from Marjah, who declined to give his name for fear of reprisals, speaking by phone from Lashkar Gah. "In the past seven or eight years, the government has not helped us. Farmers earn more from poppy than any other crop in Afghanistan. If the government still does not help us, we'll be forced to grow (poppy) again."

As with the military operation, Afghans for the first time will lead the civilian effort in Marjah, which has a population of about 80,000. The Afghans' ability to provide security and governance is the key to allowing foreign forces to leave the country, US officials say.

1 | 2

Next