US troops push more aggressively into surrounding desert
US Marine reconnaissance units are investigating more aggressively in the southern Afghan desert.
Meanwhile other hunter-killer teams are on patrol closer to base, military officials say.
A spokesman for the Marine's Task Force 58, says reconnaissance teams are becoming more active.
"These are deep reconnaissance assets looking for threats," Captain David Romley said. "Any threat is going to be a target."
The reconnaissance units travel in fast-moving, open Mercedes Benz off-road vehicles, supported by military Humvees.
"They travel in packs," Romley said. He refused to call them elite units because the Marines do not make that distinction. But he says they are generally older and higher-ranking than other Marines, and have passed a tough selection and training programme.
"They are now more aggressively patrolling," Romley said, without giving details about their missions. He says in addition to special weapons training, the force is trained to recover objects or individuals.
At the same time, a Combined Anti-Armour Team, also called a "hunter-killer team," is patrolling closer to the base in Humvees with heavy machine guns and shoulder-fired, infrared-guided Javelin missile systems.
Platoon leader Lt. Aaron J Schwartz, 24, of Lansdale, Pennsylvania, says the patrols have been quiet, and that they had seen "absolutely nothing" - not even camels or goats.
Corporal Jason Whitman, 26, says the crew is ready to fire on enemy troops if it has to.
