A small 300-Marine task force bound for Helmand Province, Afghanistan, quietly deployed from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, last week, officials with II Marine Expeditionary Force confirmed.

Known as Task Force Southwest, the element is led by Brig. Gen. Roger Turner and largely composed of troops from Lejeune’s 6th Marine Regiment, who will train and advise local Afghan National Army and police forces as they struggle to hold the line against resurgent Taliban forces. The deployment was first reported by Marine Corps Times.

Helmand, Afghanistan’s southernmost province, was the site of some of the most intense and costly battles of the long war. The headquarters of Marine Corps operations in Afghanistan, Camp Leatherneck, was located in Helmand, and Marines waged hard and lengthy offensives in populous regions including Sangin and Marjah in the latter years of the war, driving the Taliban out of district centers there..”

Forrás : http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/04/19/300-marines-deploy-to-southern-afghanistan-taliban-see-gains.html?ESRC=marine_170425.nl