US Marines fan out across dangerous Afghan south

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Source: AP

US Marines fan out across dangerous Afghan south
By CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press Writer Mon Jun 8, 4:50 pm ET

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan – Teams of builders worked through dust storms Monday to expand a base for a brigade of U.S. Marines now fanning out across southern Afghanistan to change the course of a war claiming American lives faster than ever before.

Some 10,000 Marines have poured into Afghanistan in the last six weeks, the military said Monday, transforming this once small base in the heart of the country's most violent province, Helmand, into a desert fortress.

The statement to embedded journalists, including a team from The Associated Press, was the first confirmation that the military has fully deployed the first wave of 21,000 additional troops President Barack Obama ordered to Afghanistan this year to help stanch an increasingly violent Taliban insurgency.

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An Army brigade of some 7,000 troops will follow this summer along with 4,000 forces to train Afghan security forces.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090608/ap_on_re_as/as_afghan_surge