U.S. troops may face Afghan resistence

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 3 (UPI) -- U.S. troops may face a tough time wresting Afghan provinces from Taliban control as many villagers have accepted the militants' rules, local leaders say.

On Thursday, 4,000 U.S. Marines began a major offensive to try to take back several southern provinces from the Taliban. However, the Taliban is so pervasive in Kandahar and Helmand provinces that gaining control in some districts may heighten tension, local leaders told The New York Times.

"We Muslims don't like them (international forces) -- they are the source of danger," Hajji Taj Muhammad, a local villager, told the Times. He said his house in Marja, a town west of Lashkar Gah that has been an opium trading post and Taliban base, was bombed two months ago.

Southern provinces have sustained the worst civilian casualties since NATO's deployment to the region in 2006, and thousands of people have been displaced, the Times said.

"Now there are more people siding with the Taliban than with the government," said Abdul Qadir Noorzai, director of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission in southern Afghanistan.

Also, community leaders said villagers haven't experienced the presence of the Afghan government or foreign troops except through violence, and the Taliban are a known entity.

"People are hostages of the Taliban, but they look at the coalition also as the enemy, because they have not seen anything good from them in seven or eight years," said Hajji Abdul Ahad Helmandwal, a district council leader in Helmand Province.