Taliban

There was never much doubt that U.S. and Afghan forces deployed in sufficient numbers could retake the Taliban stronghold of Marja in southern Helmand province and, at least temporarily, prevent the enemy's return to the area. The question was always at what cost. With the deaths of up to a dozen civilians from a stray rocket fired by American forces during the fighting that began there over the weekend, and several more killed in an air raid Monday when they were mistakenly thought to be planting a bomb, answers are beginning to emerge that suggest the difficulty of the task the U.S. is facing in this first test of President Barack Obama's new Afghan strategy.

U.S. Marines and the Afghan army plan a major assault on Taliban fighters in Marja, the last main community under the militants' control in what had been a largely lawless area of the Helmand River Valley, a top Marine said Wednesday. "We are going to gain control," Col. George "Slam" Amland told reporters. "We are going to alter the ecosystem considerably." Amland, deputy commander of Marine forces in southern Afghanistan, would not discuss the timing of the assault or how many thousands of troops would be involved.

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - Pakistan has told U.S. military leaders it is willing to help train Afghan soldiers to fight Taliban forces, the country's army chief said Monday, a promising gesture by a government at times skeptical of Washington's strategy. Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani sought to counter criticisms from the West that Pakistan is a reluctant ally when it comes to battling the Taliban in Afghanistan. The training of Afghanistan's national army and its police is seen as a vital cog in President Barack Obama's strategy to defeat the Taliban and ready the country for the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- At least 75 civilians were killed and dozens more wounded Friday when a bomber detonated an explosive-laden vehicle at an outdoor volleyball game in northwest Pakistan, police said. The attack apparently was aimed at members of an anti-Taliban "peace committee" that has been challenging the influence of insurgents, officials and town elders said. The bombing took place as a crowd of more than 200 people watched a match between local teams about 20 miles south of the town of Lakki Marwat in the North-West Frontier Province.

Days after President Barack Obama outlines his new war strategy in a speech Tuesday, as many as 9,000 Marines will begin deploying to southern Afghanistan to renew an assault on a Taliban stronghold that stalled earlier this year amid a troop shortage and political pressure from the Afghan government, senior U.S. officials said. The extra Marines - the first to move into the country as part of Obama's escalation of the eight-year-old war - will double the size of the U.S. force in the southern province of Helmand and provide a critical test for Afghan President Hamid Karzai's struggling government and Gen. Stanley McChrystal's counterinsurgency strategy.

The month's death toll so far: 55 Eight U.S. soldiers died Tuesday in two attacks, both of which involved improvised explosive devices and occurred in a province that is seen as an insurgent stronghold. October is the third month out of the past four that U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan hit a record. Taliban targets U.N., Afghan vote Gunmen attacked a guest house used by United Nations staff in the Afghan capital of Kabul early today, killing at least seven people including three U.N. staff, officials said.

Should the Supreme Court allow state and local gun control laws to be challenged under the Second Amendment? Yes 60% No 37% Not sure 3% (700 votes, results not scientific) Next poll: : Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, has asked President Barack Obama to quickly send tens of thousands more troops to fight al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Should the president do it? Vote at baltimoresun.com/vote

Senior Airman Ashton Goodman of Indianapolis was killed in May when a suicide car bomber detonated beside her convoy north of Kabul. The same attack also killed Lt. Col. Mark E. Stratton II of Houston and 1st Sgt. Blue C. Rowe of Summers, Ark. In June, Pfc. Matthew D. Ogden of Corpus Christi, Texas, was killed along with three other soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division by a roadside bomb in Wardak Province. In July, Lance Cpl. Charles S. Sharp of Adairsville, Ga., was fatally wounded by Taliban in Helmand Province.