http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htatrit/articles/20100228.aspx
Two weeks of fighting in Marjah (southern Afghanistan) have left over a hundred Taliban dead, and more than sixty captured. NATO forces have suffered 15 dead, partly because the ROE (Rules of Engagement) limit the use of smart bombs and missiles to deal with Taliban gunmen in buildings that might contain civilians. Troops often have to work their way into the buildings, to make sure they get the Taliban shooting at them, and not the civilians being used as human shields.
This is all part of the Taliban plan to shift public anger from themselves, to the foreign troops. The Taliban cause most of the civilian deaths in Afghanistan, but that is expected by Afghans. The Taliban have always been quick to kill civilians that opposed them. But getting killed by a foreign soldier is something that is particularly unpopular among Afghans. Especially Pushtun Afghans, and it's the Pushtun tribes in the south, around Kandahar and in Helmand province (where Marjah is) that supply most of the Taliban leadership and gunmen. The Taliban haven't got much popular support in Afghanistan as a whole. The majority (60 percent) of the population are not Pushtun, and are very hostile to the Taliban. Most Pushtuns are also anti-Taliban, but the Pushtuns around Kandahar and Helmand are more hospitable. Some of these Pushtuns have tribal connections to the Taliban, and others are getting wealthy from the drug business, which is centered in Helmand.
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