WASHINGTON, Nov 28: More than 750 US marines were in southern Afghanistan by Wednesday, setting up a foward operating base at an airstrip south of Kandahar, the Pentagon said.

Pentagon officials have said the marines’ presence — backed by AH-1W Cobra helicopter gunships — will be used to block escape routes out of Kandahar to Pakistan, Iran or Kabul.

“They will continue to go in,” said Victoria Clarke, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson.

Except for an air attack on an armored column in the vicinity of the air strip on Monday, the largest deployment of US ground forces since the start of the war appears to have unfolded without incident.

Clarke put the number of marines on the ground at between 750 and 800 and said they were concentrating on establishing a forward operating base.

But Army General Tommy Franks, the commander of the US campaign, said on Tuesday in Tampa, Florida, that the marines were not a force to take Kandahar.—AFP