WITH US FORCES IN SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN, Nov 26: US Marines seized an airstrip in southern Afghanistan near Kandahar, landing in waves aboard helicopters and C-130 aircraft for the biggest ground operation since the start of the Afghan campaign.

Some 500 US Marines, ferried in overnight by helicopter from a ship in the Arabian Sea, set up a bridgehead at a lonely airbase in southern Afghanistan, within striking distance of Kandahar.

General James Mattis said the operation went smoothly.

“The New York school of ballet could not have orchestrated a more intricate movement more flawlessly,” Mattis said while talking to reporters who accompanied the Marines to the airbase on condition they did not reveal its precise location.

“In short order you’ll have 1,000-plus Marines in the backyard of the Taliban,” said Colonel Peter Miller, chief of staff for Taskforce 58, which comprises nearly 9,000 Marines.

Heavily armed US AC-130 gunships and attack jets also pummeled targets in Kandahar overnight and in the morning, but witnesses said the Taliban remained in control of the area.

“There is no apparent sign they are retreating but Taliban here are in very sparse numbers,” one witness said.

Local Afghans identified the captured facility as Dolangi airstrip, about 90kms southwest of Kandahar, believed to have been rebuilt and used by Osama. They said the personal helicopter of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar had been parked there only a few days ago.

Gen Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said five U.S. servicemen were seriously wounded when a U.S. air strike hit near their position. They were evacuated to Uzbekistan.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld defined the purpose of the Marines on the ground in Afghanistan as “to establish a forward base of operations to help pressure the Taliban forces in Afghanistan, to prevent Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists from moving freely about the country”.

He said most Taliban strongholds had now fallen and their leaders were on the move and had difficulty managing their remaining military assets.

“We are pursuing them across the country from north to south and east to west and intend to continue following them wherever they go,” Rumsfeld said.

But the Taliban still remained defiant. “We have decided to fight U.S. forces to our last breath,” said a spokesman.

The spokesman said Omar was still in Kandahar. But mystery shrouds the whereabouts of Osama, the man the Americans are principally out to get.

The United States is using special operatives, spyplanes and remote-sensing technology to hunt its most wanted man.

Now it has also sent in the Marines as it vows to track down the man with the 25 million dollars bounty on his head in the rugged hills where, the best bet is, he is still holed up.

BUSH: President George W. Bush said the war was now entering a critical phase in which the risk of U.S. casualties had risen.