MARJAH, Afghanistan - It could take weeks to reclaim the Taliban stronghold of Marjah, a top Marine commander said Sunday as thousands of U.S. troops and Afghan soldiers fought for a second day in NATO's most ambitious effort yet to break the militants' grip on Afghanistan's dangerous south.

"That doesn't necessarily mean an intense gun battle, but it probably will be 30 days of clearing," Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson said. "I am more than cautiously optimistic that we will get it done before that." 

Squads of Marines and Afghan soldiers occupied a majority of Marjah, but gunfire continued as pockets of militants dug in and fought. Sniper fire forced Nicholson to duck behind an earthen bank in the northern part of the city where he toured the tip of the Marines' front line held by Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines.

"The fire we just took reflects how I think this will go - small pockets of sporadic fighting by small groups of very mobile individuals," he said.

Explosions from controlled detonations of bombs and other explosives were being heard about every 10 minutes in the area.

"There's really a massive amount of improvised explosive devices," Nicholson said. "We thought there would be a lot, but we are finding even more than expected."

The second day of NATO's largest offensive since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan also was marked by painstaking house searches.

Using metal detectors and sniffer dogs, U.S. forces found caches of explosives rigged to blow as they went from compound to compound down streets riddled with thousands of homemade bombs and mines. Shots continued to ring out in some neighborhoods.

They also discovered several sniper positions, freshly abandoned and booby-trapped with grenades.

The troops also found two large caches of ammonium nitrate - a common ingredient in explosives - totaling about 8,800 pounds (4,000 kilograms), said Lt. Josh Diddams, a Marine spokesman.

"We're in the majority of the city at this point," Diddams said. He said the nature of the resistance has changed from the initial assault, with insurgents now holding ground in some neighborhoods.

"We're starting to come across areas where the insurgents have actually taken up defensive positions," he said. "Initially it was more hit and run."
NATO said it hoped to secure Marjah, the largest town under Taliban control and a key opium smuggling hub, within days, set up a local government and rush in development aid in a first test of the new U.S. strategy for turning the tide of the 8-year-old war.

At least two shuras, or meetings, have been held with local Afghan residents - one in the northern district of Nad Ali and the other in Marjah itself, NATO said in a statement. Discussions have been "good," and more shuras are planned in coming days as part of a larger strategy to enlist community support for the NATO mission, it said.

Afghan officials said Sunday that at least 27 insurgents had been killed in the operation. 

Most of the Taliban appeared to have scattered in the face of overwhelming force, possibly waiting to regroup and stage attacks later to foil the alliance's plan to stabilize the area and expand Afghan government control in the volatile south.

Two NATO soldiers were killed on the first day of the operation - one American and one Briton - according to military officials in their countries. At least seven civilians had been wounded, but there were no reports of deaths, Helmand provincial spokesman Daoud Ahmadi said.

More than 30 transport helicopters ferried troops into the heart of Marjah before dawn Saturday, while British, Afghan and U.S. troops fanned out across the Nad Ali district to the north of the mud-brick town, long a stronghold of the Taliban.

Maj. Gen. Gordon Messenger told reporters in London that British forces "have successfully secured the area militarily" with only sporadic resistance from Taliban forces. A Taliban spokesman insisted their fighters still controlled the town.

President Barack Obama was keeping a close watch on combat operations, White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said.

Vietor said Defense Secretary Robert Gates would have the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, brief Obama on Sunday.

In Marjah, most of the Marines said they would have preferred a straight-up gunbattle to the "death at every corner" crawl they faced.

"Basically, if you hear the boom, it's good. It means you're still alive after the thing goes off," said Lance Corp. Justin Hennes, 22, of Lakeland, Florida.

Local Marjah residents crept out from hiding after dawn Sunday, some reaching out to Afghan troops partnered with Marine platoons.

"Could you please take the mines out?" Mohammad Kazeem, a local pharmacist, asked the Marines through an interpreter. The entrance to his shop had been completely booby-trapped, without any way for him to re-enter his home, he said.

The bridge over the canal into Marjah from the north was rigged with so many explosives that Marines erected temporary bridges to cross into the town.

"It's just got to be a very slow and deliberate process," said Capt. Joshua Winfrey of Stillwater, Oklahoma, a Marine company commander.

Lt. Col. Brian Christmas, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines, said U.S. troops fought gunbattles in at least four areas of the town and faced "some intense fighting."

To the east, the battalion's Kilo Company was inserted into the town by helicopter without meeting resistance but was then "significantly engaged" as the Marines fanned out from the landing zone, Christmas said.

Marine commanders had said they expected between 400 and 1,000 insurgents - including more than 100 foreign fighters - to be holed up in Marjah, a town of 80,000 people that is the linchpin of the militants' logistical and opium-smuggling network in the south.

The offensive, code-named "Moshtarak," or "Together," was described as the biggest joint operation of the Afghan war, with 15,000 troops involved, including some 7,500 in Marjah itself. The government says Afghan soldiers make up at least half of the offensive's force.

Once Marjah is secured, NATO hopes to quickly deliver aid and provide public services in a bid to win support among the estimated 125,000 people who live in the town and surrounding villages. The Afghans' ability to restore those services is crucial to the success of the operation and in preventing the Taliban from returning. 

OUTPOST BELLEAU WOOD, Afghanistan - Take a desert of yellow-orange dust so flat it looks like Mars, with a freezing wind that blows so hard it can lift a large tent. 

Add hundreds of U.S. Marines, squads of Afghan soldiers, some Drug Enforcement Administration agents, a few private contractors, along with dozens of armored cars, mine breachers and an improvised helicopter landing zone.

That's Outpost Belleau Wood, a Marine base near the edge of the Taliban-controlled town of Marjah, which the Marines plan to attack in the coming days.

It took barely a week for the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment to create the outpost from scratch.

They bulldozed earth berms to make a protection wall, pitched lines of pup-tents that bend and wobble in the gale, and set up batteries of mortars and 155-millimeter artillery cannons.

"Those guns started shooting the night they got here," said the battalion commander, Lt. Col. Brian Christmas, as he leaned forward against the wind while walking through the base in full body armor and helmet.

Named after a World War I battle where the 6th Marines earned the label "devil dogs" for the ferocity of their fight against German troops, Belleau Wood lies about 7 miles (10 kilometers) north of Marjah.

Several units from the battalion are already pushing in toward the town, where an estimated 600 fighters are entrenched. While the outpost has been hit only once, companies closer to Marjah face daily skirmishes and bombings.

Marjah is the biggest community in southern Afghanistan that is under Taliban control and a center of their logistical and drug-smuggling networks. The NATO command believes restoring government control there would go a long way to discrediting the Taliban among Afghans in a part of the country where the militants have been strong for years.

The offensive proper is expected to be the biggest in the nine-year Afghan war, and troops on the outpost are all waiting for battle.

Dozens of Marine engineers have been rehearsing how to lay out massive metallic bridges they plan to use when troops will need to cross the canals surrounding Marjah. Route clearance teams were also fine-tuning their tactics to detect the bombs that litter the area.

NATO commanders have been outspoken on their plans to take Marjah. But they've remained tightlipped on one key bit of information: timing.

Few know when the offensive will begin, and those who do are saying nothing. So the Marines are in the starting blocks, waiting in the cold.

"The wait is part of the fight," says Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Daniel Perez, a Navy medic. "It gives people the time to pump up with anticipation."

Marjah is suspected to be one of the biggest, most dangerous minefields NATO forces have ever faced, and hundreds of the fighters barricaded inside could be planning to fight until death.

But Perez said he hasn't seen anyone frightened by the fight - "or if they are, they're hiding it very well."
He says waiting, however long, doesn't matter for the Marines.

"It's almost like the Olympics," he said. "You train and train and train ... and this is finally the big show." 

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan - U.S. troops and their Afghan and NATO allies are planning their biggest joint offensive since the Afghan war's start, targeting a town in the volatile south known as a Taliban stronghold and a hub of their lucrative opium trade, officers said Wednesday.

No date for the start of the offensive has been released for security reasons. But U.S. commanders have said they plan to capture the town of Marjah, 380 miles (610 kilometers) southwest of Kabul, this winter.

It is to be the first major offensive since President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, and many of the Marines set to participate arrived as part of the surge.

Up to 125,000 people are believed to live in the district around Marjah, an agricultural center in Helmand province surrounded by a maze of irrigation canals built with American aid in the 1950s and 1960s. About 80,000 people live in or around the town itself.

Between 600 and 1,000 Taliban and foreign fighters are thought to operate in the area, U.S. officers say. NATO officials won't say how many NATO and Afghan troops have been earmarked for the offensive, but they are expected to vastly outnumber the Taliban and their allies.


In Kabul, NATO spokesman Brig. Gen. Eric Tremblay told reporters that the operation will include at least 1,000 Afghan police and thousands of Afghan soldiers as well as thousands of NATO troops. U.S. officers say the offensive will involve the highest number of Afghan forces in any joint operation to date.

Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi did not specifically mention Marjah, but told reporters in Kabul that a large operation is coming "in the near future" in Helmand. He said it will "separate the local people from the terrorists in the area."

Fighting escalated in Helmand in 2006, and the sprawling southern province was transformed into one of the deadliest parts of the country for NATO forces.

Last spring, thousands of U.S. Marines arrived in the province to reinforce the British military. British and American forces launched twin operations to try to stabilize the area before the August presidential election, in which turnout in Helmand was extremely low.

U.S. officials have spoken publicly about plans to take Marjah in hopes that many civilians will leave the town, along with Taliban fighters who are not deeply committed to the insurgency.

Commanders believe support of the local population is crucial to establishing an Afghan administration as quickly as possible and to help NATO troops detect the numerous improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, that they expect to face in Marjah.

Two U.S. service members were killed by a bomb Tuesday in southern Afghanistan, but NATO did not specify the precise location.

Col. George Amland, the deputy commander of Marines in Helmand province, said the Taliban force includes "hundreds of idiots running around Marjah right now waiting to aggregate" and confront the NATO and Afghan troops.

He expects the Taliban ranks will "dwindle very quickly into a very manageable number" by the time the fighting begins.

Amland dismissed most of the Taliban force as just "in the Taliban's employ" and said that local opium poppy growers and opium dealers will abandon the militants quickly.

That leaves the "dyed-in-the-wool Taliban," Amland told reporters in Camp Leatherneck, the main Marine Corps base in southern Afghanistan. He estimates there are "a couple of hundred of those that are rallying the rest of the cause." 

The militants are believed to include about 100 to 150 foreign fighters, including Arabs, Pakistanis, Uzbeks, Chechens and a few Yemenis, said Maj. Jundish Jang Baz, of the Afghan National Army.

The problem, he added, is that NATO isn't completely sure whether it can rely on all the forces supposed to be on its side. Jang Baz said the locally hired Afghan police were less than reliable.

"We think they're working with al-Qaida in Marjah," Jang Baz said, adding that he expected the Taliban to "scatter like ants."

"The real challenge is to make sure they don't flee with enough weapons to start another fight somewhere else," he said.

Azimi also said an investigation was still under way into a NATO airstrike that killed four Afghan soldiers last week in Wardak province.

The fighting broke out when a joint U.S.-Afghan force came under fire near a remote highway outpost and called in the airstrike. Both sides have said it appeared to be a case of mistaken identity.

The U.S. Army Special Operations Command denied claims by Afghan officials that the troops involved were special forces. 

NAIROBI, Kenya - Danish special forces stormed a ship captured by armed Somali pirates Friday and freed the 25 crew on board, marking the first time a warship has intervened during a hijacking, naval spokesmen said.

After the vessel Ariella sent out a distress signal early Friday, the Danish warship Absalon sent a helicopter to confirm the presence of pirates, and communicated with the crew to ensure they were in a safe location, said Cmdr. John Harbour, spokesman for the European Union Naval Force.

"Once NATO were absolutely sure that the crew onboard were safe and not going to be caught up in any cross fire, the decision was made to send in the specialist teams," said Lt. Col. Wolfgang Schmidt, a spokesman for NATO's Lisbon-based Joint Command.

Ten Danish special forces aboard the Absalon approached the Ariella in an inflatable dinghy, he said. The forces scaled the side of the ship and freed the 25 crew, who had locked themselves in a secure room, and continued to search the vessel for the pirates.

In the meantime, sailors from the nearby Russian Navy ship Neustrashimyy boarded and detained pirates aboard a second skiff, said Schmidt.

Harbour praised the NATO forces for their fast reaction and coordination with other forces in the area.
"There's been many instances where there's been excellent cooperation and three, four or even five nations have helped deter a pirate attack," he said. But, he added: "This is the first where a warship has been able to send forces to stop a hijacking while it was in progress."

Warships typically do not intervene in hijackings because of the danger that crews may be hit by crossfire. Forces were able to intervene in this case because the ship had registered with naval authorities, was traveling along a recommended transit corridor and was part of a group transit, ensuring the ships had a helicopter within 30 minutes' reaction time, Harbour said.

Denmark rarely releases information on operations carried out by its elite forces, but the storming of the ship may have been carried out by the country's elite Frogman Corps, which were part of a NATO deployment.
"There is an operation going on down there and we're involved. It is still going on right now," Pernielle Kroer, spokeswoman for the Danish Navy told The Associated Press.

The Antigua and Barbuda-flagged Ariella sent out a distress signal early Friday that was picked up by the Indian warship Tabar in the Gulf of Aden. The Indians relayed the signal to a French plane overhead, which spotted a group of armed pirates on the deck. Then the Danish troops were notified.

The ship has a crew of 25, including a Bulgarian, a Slovakian, an Indian, 15 Filipinos, and 7 Ukrainians, the EU Naval Force said. They are all safe.

Other EU and American forces have intervened in pirate hostage situations, but not during the hijacking itself.
French commandos stormed a yacht last April with five hostages on board but one, skipper Florent Lemacon, was killed during the operation. American snipers also shot dead three pirates in April 2009 holding an American captain hostage on board a lifeboat after the crew of the Maersk Alabama had persuaded the pirates to leave the main ship.

Details on the nationalities of the crew on board the Arielle and its cargo were not immediately released.
Somali pirates have seized three ships this year and hold a total of nine vessels and more than 180 crew.
Piracy is one of the few ways to make money in Somalia, an arid, impoverished land torn apart by civil war. The government does not hold its own capital and can't send forces to counter the flourishing pirate bases that dot its 1,900-mile (3,100-kilometer)-long coastline. 

KABUL - The U.S. military blamed "shortcomings in command oversight" and delays in closing a remote outpost in northeastern Afghanistan for an October ambush that left eight Americans dead, according to a report released Friday.


The Oct. 3 gunbattle that broke out when hundreds of insurgents stormed the base with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and guns in mountainous Nuristan province near the Pakistan border was one of the worst ground attacks of the war.


An investigation found the soldiers "heroically repelled a complex attack from an enemy force of 300" after calling in air support. When the fighting was over, about 150 insurgents were dead but so were eight Americans and three Afghan soldiers.


A report released by the U.S. military in Afghanistan recommended administrative actions "to address shortcomings in command oversight" that contributed to the attack.

U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top NATO commander, also has taken appropriate action regarding Army personnel involved and issued guidance to commanders and noncommissioned officers at all levels to try to prevent similar attacks in the future.


The command did not identify those involved or specify any punitive measures, citing privacy laws.


The report said critical intelligence and other assets had been diverted to assist combat operations in other areas and necessary improvements for force protection were not made because the outpost was due to be closed.


"There were inadequate measures taken by the chain of command, resulting in an attractive target for enemy fighters," according to executive summary of the report.


Insurgents had been able to conduct numerous probing attacks to learn the U.S. force's tactics and procedures as well as the location of weapons systems, barracks and other key infrastructure, it said.


Militants had launched about 47 attacks during the five months that the B Troop, 3rd Squadron, 61st Cavalry, had been deployed at the outpost in Nuristan's Kamdesh district - three times the rate experienced by the previous unit.


The attack underscored the vulnerability of the outposts that are manned by NATO and Afghan forces away from the heavily fortified bases where most of the troops live.


Many of the small bases have been abandoned as part of McChrystal's new strategy to redirect forces to focus on more populated areas to protect civilians and blunt the influence of the Taliban.


According to the report, Combat Outpost Keating had been scheduled for closure in July or August 2009 but was delayed when the assets needed to ferry supplies were diverted to support intense Afghan operations under way in another area.


It added that other intelligence assets were used for the ongoing operation and the search for a missing U.S. soldier in the south.


The U.S. subsequently withdrew from the outpost and destroyed what remained of the camp on Oct. 6 to prevent enemy use, the report said.

Anger, frustration and a hunger for revenge are running high among U.S. Marines as casualties mount on the frontline of the battle against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.

On a base near Marjah, a Taliban stronghold in Helmand province, Marines are grieving the deaths of a sergeant and corporal killed by the remote-controlled bombs that have become the scourge of the long-running conflict.

Commanders try to keep the men's rage in check, aware that winning over an Afghan public wary of the foreign military presence and furious about mounting civilian casualties is as crucial as any battlefield success.
"It causes a lot of frustration. My men want revenge, that is only natural," says First Lt. Aaron MacLean, 2nd Platoon commander of Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 6th Regiment.

"But I keep telling them that the rules are the rules for a reason. If we simply go crazy and start shooting at everything, in the long run we will lose this war because we will lose the support of the population."

He too is frustrated, accusing the Taliban of manipulating the rules of engagement by using women and children as shields and shooting from hidden positions before dropping their weapons and standing out in the open.

"They know we can't shoot them if they don't carry guns or without positive identification. They are fighting us at another level now," MacLean said.

MacLean recently led his unit on a routine foot patrol near Marjah, expected to be the scene of a major offensive this month to drive the insurgents from one of their last bastions of control.

What the Marines encountered was a likely precursor of the battle to come.

They were met by fierce gunfire from Taliban gunmen who pinned them down for three hours at the expense of two of their men.

One corporal stepped on an improvised explosive device (IED) --- the remote-controlled bombs now the main weapon in the Taliban arsenal and which military intelligence officials say claim up to 90 percent of foreign troop lives.

The corporal's legs were blown off and he was thrown yards into the air.

A second IED killed a sergeant who rushed to the corporal's aid as bullets flew everywhere, MacLean said.

Three others were wounded in the clash, making it one of the bloodiest days for U.S. Marines since President Obama's December announcement of a fresh troop surge in the war to eradicate the Taliban.

The death toll of foreign soldiers fighting in Afghanistan under U.S. and NATO command hit 44 in January --- the highest for the month since the war began more than eight years ago --- compared with 25 in January 2009.

The number of Americans who died last month in the conflict now in its ninth year was almost double the number for January last year, at 29 compared with 15, according to the icasualties.org website, which keeps a running tally.

The U.S. and NATO currently deploy 113,000 troops in Afghanistan, with another 40,000 due over the course of the year as part of a renewed strategy that emphasizes development and the "reconciliation" of Taliban fighters.

Most of the incoming troops will be deployed in Helmand, which along with neighboring Kandahar province 
has been the hub of the insurgency since the Taliban regime was removed from power in late 2001.

MacLean's unit is among the first Marine outfits to be sent into Helmand since the surge was announced.

On the day of the ambush, Marines hunkered down in tents inside the camp as information about the encounter came in.

Some had tears in their eyes as the names of casualties were made known. Others held tightly to their weapons and yelled at their enemy on the horizon.

"We were attacked treacherously. We came under fire from everywhere, but the rules of engagement prevent me from doing my job," said Lance Cpl. Mark Duzick, who was in the unit that was ambushed.

Outside a tent housing the Marine unit responsible for firing mortars stands an improvised cross bearing the inscription: "Here lies the 81st, death by stand down."

Last year was the worst yet for foreign troops fighting in Afghanistan, with 520 soldiers dead, up from 295 in 2008. More troops will mean more casualties, military experts say.

For the Afghan people, too, 2009 was the deadliest, with the U.N. putting civilian deaths at 2,412 for the year, compared to 2,118 in 2008.

While most are caused by the Taliban, the insurgents easily exploit civilian casualties to spread distrust among the public for foreign and Afghan troops.

As the nature of the fight has changed, with the Taliban increasingly using suicide attacks and IEDs, there had been no traditional winter hiatus and defence ministry spokesman General Zahir Azimi said spring is likely to be ferocious.

"We will have the most intense clashes come the spring, and will shed the most blood this year," he told AFP.

KABUL - U.S. Soldiers shot and killed an Afghan cleric as he drove Thursday with his young son near an American base on the eastern edge of Kabul, underscoring the dangers facing civilians despite NATO efforts to minimize casualties.

The shooting occurred as Mohammad Yunus, 36, approached a four-lane highway with one of his sons, according to police and witnesses.

Yunus was struck by four bullets fired at his Toyota Corolla and died on the way to the Wazir Akbar Hospital, according to his son-in-law, Abdul Qadir. His son was not injured. Yunus left two wives and 10 children, Abdul-Qadir said.

NATO said the troops fired at "what appeared to be a threatening vehicle" near Camp Phoenix, an area where suicide attacks are not uncommon, but later described the incident as "regrettable" and promised an investigation.

A shopkeeper who witnessed the shooting said a military convoy was traveling from Kabul toward the eastern city of Jalalabad when the gunner in the lead vehicle opened fire as Yunus pulled onto the same highway.

The 25-year-old shopkeeper, who identified himself only as Aymal, said he heard no warning shots.

NATO said an investigation was under way and appropriate action would be taken to ensure troops complied with policies aimed at protecting civilians. It said Yunus' family would be compensated in accordance with local customs.

In London, President Hamid Karzai called on NATO-led forces to do more to prevent innocent Afghans from being killed and wounded.

"Ladies and gentlemen, regrettably, civilian casualties continue to be a great concern for the people of Afghanistan," he told an international conference on Afghanistan. "We should put the protection of people's lives and property at the top of our agenda."

NATO spokesman Brig. Gen. Eric Tremblay said despite measures in place to protect Afghans, "regrettable incidents such as this one can occur."

"On behalf of (NATO), I express my sincere regrets for this loss of life and convey my deepest condolences to his family," he said.

Dozens of demonstrators gathered outside Camp Phoenix to protest the killing. They dispersed after police promised the Americans would discuss the death with local elders, according to district police chief Col. Rohullah, who like many Afghans only uses one name.

The cleric's brother, Mohammad Youssef Ajami, said no compensation could make up for the loss of a life.

"It is totally cruel. Mr. Karzai sitting on his throne has no control over the foreign forces," he said in a telephone interview after the funeral in Laghman province. "They should try these Soldiers who shot my brother, who had done nothing wrong and was on a major road in a safe part of Kabul."

A recent U.N. report showed that the number of civilians killed by NATO-led forces has dropped after U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, imposed limits on the use of airstrikes and other measures to protect the population. It said civilian deaths at the hands of the Taliban have increased.

But that hasn't dimmed public outrage as such incidents continue to occur among a population weary of the presence of foreign forces and more than eight years of war.

Also Thursday, a U.S. service member was killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, according to the international force. The death brings to at least 26 the number of American deaths in Afghanistan this month, nearly double the 14 killed in all of January last year.

An Afghan policeman also was shot to death by two militants on a motorcycle in the southern city of Kandahar, provincial police chief Gen. Sardar Mohammad Zazai said.

NATO also confirmed as many as 20 suspected militants were killed Wednesday in fighting in northern Afghanistan.

Provincial police said Wednesday 11 insurgents, including two senior commanders, were killed in a joint air-and-ground assault targeting a Taliban compound west of Pul-e-Khumri, the capital of Baghlan province.
Joint forces called in air support after coming under fire from a large number of insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades, NATO said in a statement issued Thursday. It said attack aircraft "bombed and strafed insurgents in a tree line," killing 12 to 20 of them.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 23, 2009 – President Barack Obama has nominated Navy Vice Adm. James A. “Sandy” Winnefeld Jr. to be the next commander of U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

If approved by the Senate, Winnefeld would receive his fourth star. He currently is director of strategic plans and policy at the Joint Staff and senior member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Military Staff Committee.

Winnefeld would be the second sailor to command NORAD, the U.S.-Canadian command charged with the missions of aerospace warning and aerospace control for North America. He would succeed Air Force Gen. Victor E. “Gene” Renuart Jr. in both jobs.

Both commands are based in Colorado Springs, Colo.

U.S. Northern Command stood up Oct. 1, 2002, to provide command and control of Defense Department homeland defense efforts and to coordinate defense support of civil authorities in the event of a natural or man-made disaster.

Winnefeld is an ROTC graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology and has served as a naval aviator. He served with two fighter squadrons and as an instructor at the Navy Fighter Weapons School.

He commanded Fighter Squadron 211, the USS Cleveland and the USS Enterprise. He commanded the “Big E” during Sept. 11, 2001, and launched aircraft in support of Operation Enduring Freedom against al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

He commanded Carrier Strike Group 2/Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Before taking his current job, he served as the commander of the U.S. 6th Fleet, NATO Allied Joint Command Lisbon and Striking and Support Forces NATO.

Renuart has commanded Northcom and NORAD since Oct. 1, 2007. He was commissioned in the Air Force in 1971, and served in the United States, Europe, Southwest Asia and the Pacific. Renuart served as the director of operations for U.S. Central Command during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was responsible for helping to plan and execute all joint and allied combat operations.

Renuart also served as the director of strategic plans and policy before serving as senior military assistant to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.