MARJAH, Afghanistan --Military commanders raised the Afghan flag in the bullet-ridden main market of the Taliban's southern stronghold of Marjah on Wednesday as firefights continued to break out elsewhere in the town between holed-up militants and US and Afghan troops. About 15,000 NATO and Afghan troops are taking part in the offensive around Marjah, a town of about 80,000 people that was the largest population center in southern Helmand province under Taliban control. NATO hopes to rush in aid and public services as soon as the town is secured to try to win the loyalty of the population. With the assault in its fifth day, an Afghan army soldier climbed to the roof of an abandoned shop and raised a large bamboo pole with Afghanistan's official gree and-red flag. A crowd including the provincial governor, a few hundred Marine and Afghan troops and handfuls of civilians Afghan men in turbans and traditional loose tunics who were searched for weapons as they entered the bazaar watched from below. The market was calm during the ceremony and Marines there said they are in control of the neighborhood. But the detritus of fighting was everywhere. The back of the building over which the flag waved had been blown away. Shops were riddled with bullet holes. Grocery stores and fruit stalls had been left standing open, hastily deserted by their owners. White metal fences marked off areas that had not yet been cleared of bombs. Afghan soldiers said they were guarding the shops to prevent looting and hoped the proprietors would soon feel safe enough to return. One Marjah resident at the flag-raising said the area around the market has been devastated by the assault. "The Taliban fired a few shots and then the troops came and bombed the area," said Abdul Rasheed, a middle-aged man with a black beard and wearing a white cap on his head. "People fled their homes in a desert without food and water. Children and women are living in very hard conditions."
