LASHKAR GAH: US Marines returned to Afghanistan’s volatile Hel­mand on Saturday, where American troops faced heated fighting until Nato’s combat mission ended in 2014, as embattled Afghan security forces struggle to beat back the resurgent Taliban.

The deployment of some 300 Marines to the poppy-growing southern province came one day after the militants announced the launch of their “spring offensive”, and as the Trump administration seeks to craft a new strategy in Afghanistan.

Commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan General John Nicholson attended a handover ceremony marking the return of the prestigious force, the first Marines in Afghanistan since 2014, an AFP photographer said.

Part of a regular troop rotation announced in January under the Obama administration, they will arrive in stages, eventually numbering some 300 who will take part in Nato’s train, assist and advise mission.

Helmand for years was the centrepiece of the US and British military intervention in Afghanistan — only for it to slip deeper into a quagmire of instability.

“In those days Afghan security forces were tiny and just got started,” said Brigadier General Roger Turner. “With the leadership in place now they ... are poised to do much better.” The Taliban effectively control or contest 10 of Helmand’s 14 districts, blighted by a huge opium harvest that helps fund the insurgency.

Mirza Mohammad Yar­mand, a retired Afghan general based in Kabul, was optimistic.

“If the Afghan forces and the US Marines jointly fight the phenomenon of the terrorism in southern Helmand, we will have tangible results,” he said.

But former Marine James Clark, who served twice in Helmand and now writes for military website Task & Purpose, called the deployment “half-measures”.

“What lasting gains can our small military presence accomplish in Afghanistan that we couldn’t achieve during the height of the troop surge?” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2017