SHOTLIST 1. Wide of elders from Marjah village gathering in provincial governor''s office compound 2. Various of Afghan Interior Minister Hanif Atmar and officials walk into room 3. Mid of Atmar and Helmand Province Governor Gulab Mangal (on right of screen) sitting 4. Wide of news conference 5. SOUNDBITE: (Pashto) Hanif Atmar, Afghan Interior Minister: "This operation is designed to open the way for those Afghans who want to join the peace process and to use military power against those foreign terrorists who are hiding here." 6. Mid of ISAF soldiers standing 7. SOUNDBITE: (Pashto) Mawlawi Mohebullah Torpatkai, Marjah village elder: "We don''t want this operation to be like previous ones, like the one in Nadali in which the enemy was in one square and the government in the other square. It is useless. If it is like other operations which happened in other villages like Nawa and other places, which worked and had good results, then we, the people of Marja support it fully." 8. Various of the gathering STORYLINE The Afghan interior minister held a meeting on Thursday with tribal elders from Marjah, a southern militant stronghold where American and Afghan forces are expected to launch a major attack. "This operation is designed to open the way for those Afghans who want to join the peace process and to use military power against those foreign terrorists who are hiding here," Hanif Atmar told the village elders in the city of Lashkar Gah. One elder at the meeting responded positively to the appeal. "If it is like other operations which happened in other villages like Nawa and other places, which worked and had good results, then we, the people of Marja support it fully," said Mawlawi Mohebullah Torpatkai. U.S. commanders estimate they are facing between 400 and 1,000 Taliban fighters in the town, the largest in the south under militant control. Plans call for the joint U.S.-Afghan force to seize the town and quickly re-establish government control, offering services such as water, electricity and schooling to win the support of the local population. Earlier on Thursday, US Marines and Taliban insurgents exchanged gunfire on the outskirts of Marjah, while to the north, a U.S.-Afghan force led by the US Army''s 5th Stryker Brigade linked up with Marines, closing off a Taliban escape route to the nearby major city of Lashkar Gah. No casualties were reported in the scattered clashes, which broke out as Marines moved ever closer to the edge of the farming community of 80,000 people, the linchpin of Taliban influence in the opium poppy producing province of Helmand. Marines said the Taliban defenders were apparently trying to draw the Americans into a bigger fight before the US was ready to launch the main attack. Through much of the day, insurgents repeatedly fired rockets and mortars at the American and Afghan units poised in foxholes around the town, 380 miles (about 610 kilometres) southwest of Kabul. US officials have not disclosed how many Afghan and allied troops will take part in the battle but estimates range in the thousands. The major threat is expected to come from thousands of mines and roadside bombs, which the military calls improvised explosive devices, which the Taliban are believed to have planted in the area. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/8e6dfe60e929fe98455845d3029c2ba1 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

• published: 24 Jul 2015
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