MARJAH, Afghanistan (AP) - A month after losing control of their southern base in Marjah, the Taliban have begun to fight back, launching a campaign of assassination and intimidation to frighten people from supporting the U.S. and its Afghan allies.
At least one alleged government sympathizer has been beheaded. There are rumors that others have been killed. Afghans in the town that U.S., Afghan and NATO troops captured in a three-week assault that began Feb. 13 awake to letters posted on their doors warning against helping the troops.
Winning public support in this former Taliban stronghold in Helmand province 360 miles southwest of Kabul is considered essential to preventing insurgents from returning.
The Marjah operation will serve as a model for campaigns elsewhere, including one expected by summer to secure villages around Kandahar, the Taliban's spiritual birthplace and the largest city in the south.
Military commanders believe the Taliban campaign is achieving some success because of questions raised at town meetings: Do the U.S. forces want to shut down the mosques and ban prayer? Will they will use lookout posts on their bases to ogle women? Are they going to take farmers' land away?
"Dislocating the insurgents physically was easy. Dislocating them socially -- proving that we're here to stay and to help -- is a lot harder," said Lt. Col. Jeff Rule, the head of operations for Marines in Helmand.
There are no firm figures on how many Taliban are left in Marjah. Marine and Afghan military officials say they believe most of those still here are from the area and the foreign fighters have fled.
Regardless of Taliban numbers, their influence is still felt.
New cell phone towers brought phone service to Marjah a little over a week ago. But the service doesn't work at night because the Taliban threaten or bribe tower operators to shut off the network, presumably to prevent people from alerting troops and police as they plant bombs after dark.
Some of the workers on canal-clearing projects have been threatened or have been beaten up by insurgents.
At least one canal worker who received threats returned and said he will keep working despite the risk, said Maj. David Fennell, who oversees about 15 civil affairs troops working to win over the population.
"That's when you know that you fought the Taliban and you won," Fennell said. "I tell my team time and time again: 'What did we just do today? We hit the Taliban in the mouth."'
This is the struggle for Marjah now: winning people over with a job or a vaccination for a child. The victories are small because the Taliban already proved it can make good on its promises by enforcing harsh justice while in power.
"My sense is that the Taliban will reinfiltrate in due course as the Afghan government fails to live up to the modest expectations NATO has of it," says Mervyn Patterson, a former U.N. political affairs expert in Afghanistan. "I do not think that the Taliban have been weakened in Helmand by the loss of Marjah. They have been having ups and downs, and this was a modest down, but not something that is significant, in and of itself. I expect they will gradually return to Marjah."
Many of the estimated 80,000 people here share the same fears, even though two Marine battalions remain in the town. Some say they're afraid to take money from the military because if the Taliban find them with the cash, they'll be punished.
"I can't take any money because I'm afraid for my life," said Borjan, a rough-skinned farmer who owns a house that has been taken over by a Marine platoon until they can build their own outpost. He seems to want compensation: he lists equipment and field supplies that have been damaged but refuses to discuss how much it is worth. He just wants them out of the house, which is occupied by a son.
Lt. Shawn Miller said he believes Borjan really is scared. But the elders who accompanied Borjan to help him lodge his complaint are more indifferent. They just want to be left alone to farm. The Taliban mostly left them alone.
The Marines are trying to win partly through diplomacy and partly through getting development and infrastructure projects running as quickly as possible to show that the Afghan government is serious this time.
U.S. troops are having success with offering to improve mosques -- repairing structures or installing loudspeakers to try to win over influential mullahs while creating an unattractive target for Taliban militants who won't want to attack mosques.
This may overestimate the restraint of the Taliban. The beheaded man was a mosque leader, said Capt. Iqbal Khan of the Afghan army, whose 91 soldiers are embedded with a Marine company in central Marjah.
Even so, projects of all types push ahead. Three medical clinics are open, staffed by doctors from Kabul and locals who ran private clinics under the Taliban, Fennell said. Two interim schools have started, staffed by locals and with more than 100 students.
The canal-cleaning project has
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