US forces launch fresh Afghan push

More than 1,000 US and Afghan troops have launched a fresh offensive against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, in the first major operation since Barack Obama, the US president, announced his new Afghan strategy. US Marines, Afghan soldiers, and other Nato forces gathered behind Taliban lines in the northern end of the Now Zad Valley of Helmand province on Friday, Nato and US military officials said. Officials said another, larger force was pushing north from the town of Now Zad as part of the operation that the military has termed "Cobra's Anger".  "It has been taken, won and lost again and again by both sides," "Up until now, for the past three or four years the people of Now Zad have been unable to return to the city because of the fighting."