Taliban fighters and their commanders have escaped the Marines' big offensive in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province and moved into areas to the west and north, prompting fears that the U.S. effort has just moved the Taliban problem elsewhere, the Philadelphia Enquirer quotes Afghan defense officials as saying.
The movement of the Taliban into those areas has prompted complaints from German and Italian commanders, whose troops operate there, and it has prompted questions about whether the United States has enough troops to pursue the Taliban while at the same time carrying out Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal's plan to "clear, hold, and build" in areas wrested from Taliban control.
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