Nato aircraft dropped more leaflets over Marja at the weekend warning of the planned offensive.
Villagers said the leaflets gave the names of several alleged militant commanders and told fighters to leave the area or be killed, the Associated Press reports.
One resident, Gul Muhammed, told AFP news agency why he had left town.
"There are Taliban all over the place and foreign troops around Marja," he said. "So I was scared that we might get hurt."
Another man, Mohammad Hakim, was heading to Lashkar Gah with his wife, nine sons, four daughters and grandchildren.
"Everybody is worried that they'll get caught in the middle when this operation starts," he told the Associated Press.
"I can stay for one or two weeks," he said. "But if I have to leave my agriculture land for months and months, then how will I feed my family?"
It's also going to be very interesting to see how well the Afghan force perform in this operation.
The effectiveness of the alliance between the U.S. military and Afghanistan's security force rests on a particularly delicate question: Will sufficient numbers of Afghans put up a good fight against the Taliban -- starting very soon?
Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's strategy to reduce the U.S. role in Afghanistan includes increasing the training of the Afghan force, doubling its size and enhancing its capabilities. How realistic that strategy is remains to be seen, particularly in light of President Obama's preference that the United States begin withdrawing troops in mid-2011.
An offensive expected soon to seize the Taliban stronghold of Marja -- an insurgent haven and a hub of the narcotics trade in violent Helmand province -- would serve as a strong boost to Western efforts to create a robust national security force, if Afghan troops demonstrate competence and courage in the field.
But such a deliberate effort to showcase the Afghan force's role in a high-profile assault carries heavy risks as well. A lackluster showing in Marja by the Afghans would be a propaganda coup for the Taliban and a blow to hopes that a Western military drawdown can begin next year.
In July, when Marine battalions swooped into the Helmand River Valley, the Afghan contingent accompanying them was less than one-seventh the size of the U.S. deployment -- about 600 Afghan police and soldiers to about 4,500 Marines. Marine Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson complained publicly about the lopsided numbers, saying more Afghan soldiers were needed.
As the Marines seized a swath of the valley, tensions emerged with their Afghan allies. Some of the Afghans fought bravely, but others hung back, reluctant to move to the front lines. Once the Marines had established a foothold in a string of villages, field commanders were frustrated by their inability -- because so few Afghan counterparts were on hand -- to communicate with the villagers they were trying to win over.
This time around in Marja, commanders indicate, a greater proportion of the troops will be Afghan. The size of the American assault force has not been disclosed, but Brig. Gen. Eric Tremblay, spokesman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, told reporters that there would be more than 1,000 Afghan police officers and thousands of Afghan army soldiers.
And the Afghan forces will play a more important role in engaging Marja's overwhelmingly Pashtun population of about 85,000. Gen. Mohammed Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for the Afghan military, told reporters in Kabul, the capital, that a key role of the Afghan troops would be to help "separate the local people from the terrorists."
More than military pride is involved. One of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's many challenges is to convince the population that his government is strong enough to fight the Taliban. A show of force by Afghan soldiers also might persuade low-level Taliban fighters to quit the insurgency.
It's not just uniforms going in, either, as Human Terrain System analysts are moving closer to the front.
Decades ago development experts from Washington built the town of Marjah in southern Afghanistan in order to populate a desert they had helped irrigate with a network of U.S.-built canals.
Marjah has since become a breeding ground for both opium poppy cultivation and insurgents. Now U.S. civilians are back ahead of a major military offensive, planning to reverse the gains made by the Taliban, and win the hearts and minds of civilians.
NATO troops led by U.S. Marines are preparing to seize Marjah soon in one of the largest operations of the 8-year-old war, the first big display of force using some of the 30,000 extra troops pledged by U.S. President Barack Obama last December.
U.S. military officials say shooting their way to victory will not lead to peace in Afghanistan, and winning the cooperation of Afghan civilians is their most effective weapon.
Kristin Post, a social scientist working for a Department of Defense "Human Terrain Team", is about 12 km (8 miles) south of Marjah, and she is looking forward to going into the town, alongside a battalion of Marines, and talking to its residents.
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By: Brant
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