KABUL, Afghanistan — As U.S.-led coalition troops prepare for a long-awaited offensive against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, few civilians have managed to escape the town at the center of the operation, raising the risk of civilian casualties that could undermine the Obama administration's military strategy for the country.

The U.S.-led force said Tuesday that fewer than 200 families — around 1,200 people — had left the town of Marjah and the surrounding area, which have a population of about 80,000.

"Commanders in the area are reporting no significant increase in persons moving out of Nad-e Ali district in the last month," the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force said in a statement. "Despite reports of large numbers of civilians fleeing the area, the facts on the ground do not support these assertions." » read more

Count those pills and pass the ammunition.

Every day for six months, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Timothy Thompson, 40, wore a flak vest, Army fatigues and carried a weapon when he went to work at a hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. You could describe his job as combat pharmacist.

He recently returned to Belleville before heading to his new assignment as department head of the pharmacy at the hospital at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina. He joined the Navy right after he was graduated from Belleville West High School in 1987 and is now one of 120 active duty pharmacists in the Navy. » read more

KABUL, Afghanistan — The U.S.-led offensive that's expected to start soon in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province will be a battle not only against the Taliban but also against an insurgent-backed narcotics trade that provides a livelihood for thousands of residents.

Helmand produces more than half the world's opium, and Marjah, the town targeted in the operation, is its thriving drug capital.

Marjah illustrates the link between the Islamist insurgency and the narcotics trade: According to residents, the Taliban promote and tax the opium business and ally with the druglords who organize the distribution and export. » read more

MUNICH, Germany — U.S. and NATO officials sought to clarify their approach to the Afghan war this weekend in the wake of a new strategy to engage the Taliban.

At a security conference in Munich, officials said the U.S. hasn't made "any direct contact" with the Taliban, and that any Taliban forces that "want to reconcile" must "sever ties with al Qaida." While the Obama administration is drafting a timeline for the withdrawal of some U.S. troops from Afghanistan beginning next year, its targets are conditional on "success," the officials said.

Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and British Defense Secretary Bob Ainsworth offered the clarifications about allied policy at a meeting of 300 top diplomats in Munich a week after Afghan President Hamid Karzai got international support and funding in London for a policy known as "reconciliation and reintegration." That policy involves making payments to help recruit Taliban foot soldiers who aren't ideological allies of al Qaida. » read more