NATO ENTERS AFGHAN DRUG REGION

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Thousands of NATO troops have moved into
Afghanistan's biggest opium-growing region to repel an expected
springtime counterattack by a resurgent Taliban.

The offensive in Helmand province seeks to cut off drug money that is
a major source of funding for the Islamic rebel militia. Analysts say
the NATO force will be challenged by comparatively low troop levels
and its inability to chase Taliban fighters as they slip in and out
of neighboring Pakistan.

"The Taliban is based in Pakistan," says James Dobbins, a former U.S.
envoy to Afghanistan. "No Afghan-based operation can do it lasting
damage. The best we can do is set them back on their heels."

About 4,500 NATO troops -- including soldiers from the USA, Canada
and Great Britain -- pushed into northern Helmand province last week.
One thousand troops from the Afghan national army joined them,
fanning out to secure sensitive targets before mountain snows melt
and allow rebel forces greater movement.

"We're pre-empting the Taliban's so-called spring offensive," says
Royal Air Force Squadron Leader Dave Marsh, a NATO spokesman.

NATO said Sunday night that two British soldiers have been killed in combat.

A NATO priority is to create a 6-mile security buffer around the
Kajaki hydroelectric dam. Taliban fighters have repeatedly fired guns
and rockets at dam workers, preventing the delivery of a turbine
engine needed to get the plant running at full capacity. As a result,
1.7 million people across southern Afghanistan do not have reliable power.

The troops will try to win over tribal elders by convincing them
their communities will get roads, schools, clinics and other projects
once the Taliban threat is gone. U.S. Army Col. Tom Collins said
Sunday that 190 local aid projects, including bridges, immunization
clinics and sanitation systems, "are on hold because of extremist
activity in the area."

Marsh said NATO troops have made a painstaking effort to avoid
causing civilian casualties. They called off an attack Thursday when
Taliban fighters fled into a residential area.

Helmand province is the world's biggest producer of opium. According
to the United Nations, Taliban fighters protect poppy farmers from
Afghan eradication efforts in return for money, generating tens of
millions of dollars for the insurgency every year.

NATO expects the Taliban will not let one of its bases of power slip
away without a fight. As the offensive began last week, the Taliban
commander, Mullah Abdul Qassim, told the Associated Press that the
insurgents could call on 4,000 fighters in northern Helmand and 4,000
to 5,000 elsewhere in the province.

A top Taliban military commander, Mullah Dadullah, claimed in an
Al-Jazeera TV interview last month that a spring offensive was
"imminent." He said fighters were hidden in tunnels and elsewhere in
preparation for the assault.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair pleaded with NATO nations to send
more troops to Afghanistan at a European Union summit last week, but
he came up empty-handed. Several countries restrict their troops in
Afghanistan from operating in certain combat situations.

"What is taken from the Taliban is often lost because it can't be
held long enough to bring in reconstruction," says Ahmed Rashid, a
Pakistani journalist and author of Taliban. "There has been and
remains a persistent shortage of (Afghan and NATO) troops ... to
occupy the area that is seized."