US to send tanks to support Marines in southern Afghanistan

[News_Editor]

US to send tanks to support Marines in southern Afghanistan

2010-11-20 00:43:06 GMT+7 (ICT)

WASHINGTON D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- United States Defense officials on Friday said that the Obama Administration will send 14 tanks to help Marines that are fighting insurgents in southern Afghanistan.

According to the Washington Post, two senior Defense officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that 14 M1A1 Abrams tanks and an additional force of 115 Marines will be deployed to southern Afghanistan next month.

The officials added that this is the first time in the 9-year war that the United States will use the huge tanks in Afghanistan. In the past, Canadians and Danish troops first used the heavily armored combat vehicles in the war efforts.

The deployment of the armored vehicles represents a further escalation in the aggressive tactics employed by the American forces this fall to combat the Taliban insurgents. The tanks will allow ground forces to target militants from a greater distance and with more lethal force than any other military vehicle.

The tanks will be initially used to support Marines that have been engaged in intense combat against resilient Taliban cells that are usually armed with assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and homemade bombs.

The U.S. has tripled the number of Special Operations missions to kill or capture Taliban leaders over the last three months. The U.S. and NATO air forces fired more bombs and missiles in October, about 1,000, than in any single month since the beginning of the armed conflict in 2001.

The 68-ton tanks are propelled by a jet engine and equipped with a 120 millimeter gun that can destroy a house more than a mile away. The tanks will provide extra protection and added firepower to help Marines to safeguard roads where militants place roadside bombs.

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