tonight on "worldfocus" -- u.s. marines meet heavy resistance as they try to gain control of a strategic taliban-held town in southern afghanistan. could this be a sign of battles to come? in taiwan, rescuers find more than a thousand people alive in the area around three villages buried beneath mudslides triggered by last weekends typhoon. we continue to look at the impact of climate change on remote lands. tonight, we're back in nepal to see how a centuries old way of life is being threatened. where did the glaciers go? and mexico's ongoing against drug cartels was a topic at this weeks north america summit. tonight our "signature story"

focuses on one of the painful side effects of that fight. the disappeared. from the world's leading reporters and analysts, here is what's happening from around the world. this is "worldfocus." made possible in part by the following funders -- good evening. i'm martin savidge. united states marines went on the offensive today. launching a major new attack on a taliban stronghold in the south of that country. hundreds of marines along with afghan troops went into battle under the cover of darkness to take back control of the town of dahaneh in helmand province. that's a key base for taliban fighters. the marine offensive against the taliban, what it means and whether it's likely to succeed. is our "lead focus" tonight. some 500 marines and afghan army troops gather before dawn in preparation for the assault on dahaneh. many of the marines were dropped behind taliban lines in a

commando-style raid. in pictures taken by journalists from the associated press embedded with the marines, harrier jets can be seen streaking overhead in support of the assault. once in dahaneh, the marines met stiff resistance. taliban fighters, hidden among the buildings, fired small arms, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. the marines responded with intense and sustained gunfire. >> we're on the offensive now instead of the defensive. a lot of our missions have been defensive on our own turf. so it's good to get out here on the offense. >> at least seven taliban fighters were reported killed. the marines also reported seizing 66 pounds of opium, an important source of income for the taliban. anand gopal is a reporter for the "the wall street journal" based in kabul. >> the marines have launched an offensive in helmand in the early part of july. and pushing a lot of the insurgent fighters up north and they're kind of filtering out of the province into some of the

northern provinces. and so this town lies along the very important route for which insurgents are meeting. >> also part of the assault, a contingent of women marines brought in to deal with afghan women as the americans conducted house-to-house searches. today's attack marks the first time nato troops have entered the town of dahaneh, which has been under the control of the taliban for years. >> dahaneh is one of the key towns in the area. all the smaller towns are economically dependent on dahaneh, for example, this is where the bazaar is. so by liberating dahaneh, we free the local populace from the influence of the taliban. >> today's action by u.s. forces also comes in advance of next week's presidential election. nato troops have made a priority of securing towns and villages in rural afghanistan to encourage local citizens to participate in the voting. >> there's a real concern by people here that by next week's presidential elections that people aren't going to be able

to vote, especially in provinces like helmand because the government just doesn't have control. and can't open up the polling centers so they want to go into towns like the one they did today and open it up and allow polling to take place. it makes a very visible statement. ta now the iranian government in the elections can take place. >> because the battle is on ongoing operation, the pentagon did not release information about u.s. or afghan casuals. -- casualties. for more on the situation in afghanistan, we are joined once again by anthony cordesman of the center for strategic and international studies. and he is of course in washington. nice to see you again. >> my pleasure. >> what do we know about this situation on the ground tonight in the town or in the area of dahaneh? >> the fact is that what you're watching is an evolving combat pattern of which this is just part. you have a british campaign. a u.s. campaign. you have a whole series of firefights. what's happening in any given area is almost impossible to predict. because sometimes the taliban holds.

it has a secure way to exit. so it will directly engage u.s. marine forces. other times it disperses. it also has adopted a tactic of trying to surround any kind of combat. come in with buried bombs or improvised explosive devices and attack forces indirectly. so trying to predict the combat situation in any given moment is very difficult. >> this fight today is not necessarily an indication, say, that the taliban were -- or had been emboldened to fight more aggressively. >> no, not at all. i mean they can pick to fight for a whole host of reasons. sometimes it may just be a local leader. sometimes there may really be something to predict or protect, a large amount of narcotics or some key facility. or they may feel this is good ambush point. they can exit once they come under pressure.

engaging in something where you can succeed in achieving at least some casualties against u.s. forces and take limited casualties on your own. and of course they often make mistakes. there are lots of times that u.s. and british troops can inflict significant casualties on the taliban. >> after your visit to afghanistan, you wrote a report saying that the taliban appeared to be winning. the u.s. commander there, general mcchrystal, offered a similar bloomy assessment recently. what will it take to turn things around? >> well, we have to understand that what we talk about the taliban winning it's not that they're winning these tactical clashes. nato isaf forces have won virtually every single clash that has occurred. the problem is the areas where you don't have these fights, there's very limited afghan presence in most parts of afghanistan. there's very limited nato isaf

presence because there are only limited nato isaf force and as a result the taliban has been able to reinfiltrate in many areas, intimidate the local population, drive out traditional leaders. take over control of political space. it's fighting one kind of war and we've been fighting another and what general mcchrystal and others have focused on is changing the whole way this war is fought, and this battle is a good case in point. it isn't simply a matter of defeating the taliban. it's holding the area. it's securing the population. it's bringing in afghan forces to protect them. it's providing them with minimum amounts of government services and aid so they have reason to be loyal to the central government and reason to reject the taliban. so it's a shift from this kind of war fighting tactical strategy to what people call shape, clear, hold and build that's the fundamental reason for this campaign.

>> anthony cordesman, as always, we appreciate the insight. thank you. >> thank you. reporters are not only embedded with the marines fighting in dahaneh but with other units around afghanistan. and yesterday, two associated press journalists were seriously wounded when their vehicle ran over a bomb while traveling with the u.s. military about 120 miles southeast of the scene of today's battle. photographer emilio morenatti's foot had to be amputated and television cameraman andi jetmiko suffered leg wounds and broken ribs. between 1992 and 2008, 18 journalists had been killed in afghanistan. to win the war in afghanistan, the obama administration is asking congress for $68 billion for military operations next year. and according to a story in today's "washington post," the u.s. ambassador in kabul is now asking to increase the spending on civilian aid for that country. the "post" reports that ambassador karl eikenberry sent a cable to secretary of state hillary clinton in june

requesting an additional $2.5 billion for development and civilian government projects. the ambassador reportedly said the increase is needed "if we are to show progress in the next 14 months." we want to devote a considerable amount of time tonight to a story that we had been reporting about regularly since our debut last fall. and i'm talking about the ongoing drug violence in neighboring mexico. a problem that sometimes spills over into cities in this country. you'll recall that earlier this week, president obama met in mexico with president felipe calderon and the canadian prime minister stephen harper. the president praised what he described as mexico's "courageous effort" to combat drug trafficking and drug violence. and he spoke about how improved coordination between the mexican military and local police officers would help in the fight.

but one of the biggest problems the federal government in mexico is confronting in its war on drugs is police corruption. the very police supposed to combat the drug gangs are sometimes in cahoots with them. this week in northern mexican in the city of monterrey officials ordered the municipal police not to sit in parked patrol cars observing traffic because they suspected those police are actually spying for the drug cartels. and now to our "signature story," which is also about the drug violence in mexico. estimates are that 13,000 people have been killed in drug disputes in mexico during the past three years. one place the problem has been particularly acute in tijuana, just across the border from southern california, where a growing number of people have simply vanished. they're known as "the disappeared." as "worldfocus" special correspondent john larson first reported last march, some people believe the authorities are behind some of these abductions as well.

>> this used to be one of the busiest streets in tijuana. and i was with my son. we had to come into my -- to my brother-in-law's office. >> reporter: christina remembers the day 12 years ago when armed men blocked her car. >> one of them came to my window. the other one came to alex's window. and with the back of the rifle turned. hitting my car and shouting that we had to get out of the car. all this time i was shouting, "who are you, what do you want?" letting go. "why are you taking him?" >> reporter: they dragged her son alex into a van and christina never saw him again. mexican drug cartels have kidnapped thousands over the years. but these stories are different. mexicans call them "the disappeared." almost 1,500 people where there was no ransom, no body, no explanation.

listen to their stories and you'll get a sense of just how deep mexico's problems are. >> translator: it was about 4:30 in the morning when i got up and saw a bunch of stuff approaching with men in masks who had guns sitting in the back. >> reporter: silvia hodges was asleep with her husband in their home when they saw what they thought was a group of policemen gather outside. gunmen stormed the house and begin taking everything. tvs, valuables, even sheets and carpets. silvia and her husband, francisco had fallen in love as teenagers and worked every day together selling clothes in a flee market. she never saw him again. >> translator: it's a very difficult thing that i will never get over. i just plead to god for some news. for sol me where he is. >> reporter: as for christina, she was able to identify one of

her son's kidnappers from a police photo. he was the commander of the army's military intelligence in western mexico. a general had also been implicated. the commander was put on trial. and they convicted him? >> no, no. they let him go because they said there wasn't enough evidence. >> rorter: when you can't trust the military and you can't trust the generals and people don't trust the police, who can you trust? >> nobody. >> reporter: seriously, you're smiling? >> huge. it's -- it's incredible thing that is happening in mexico. you cannot trust anybody. >> reporter: eventually a local drug lord claimed her son had been tortured and killed. nonetheless, determined to find out exactly what had happened, christina began documenting every development in mexico's drug wars. >> if he was murdered, who murdered him? what happened to his remains? i think we're entitled to have a

piece of him that we know where he finally landed. >> reporter: she also launched a group, citizens against impunity, which joined voices with other families of the disappeared, all demanding that authorities take their cases more seriously. each case is different. in some, it's thought that there may have been some relationship to cartel members. in others, it may have been simply what someone thought they knew. and another still may be just random acts of violence. while solutions to the larger problems of the drug violence and corruption are complex, the desires of the families of the disappeale. they just want to know, what happened? >> we have nowhere to go. we don't know if they're alive, if they're not alive, what happened to them? how they died. it's a feeling of not having an end. >> reporter: for "worldfocus," i'm john larson, tijuana, mexico.

for more about all of this we are joined tonight by andres martinez. he is a senior fellow at the new america foundation in washington, d.c. thanks for being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> we've heard a lot tonight about how official corruptions impeding the drug war in mexico and i'm wondering is that why the mexican government deployed tens of thousands of federal troops to fight drug cartels, and then is it working? >> it's one of the reasons why there was a perceived need to deploy the military, yes. the fact that a lot of local police forces had been compromised and infiltrated which is a recurring problem in mexico. i wouldn't say it's only corruption though. i think it's actually a matter -- there was no other force to throw at the problem. mexico lacks a strong, muscular federal police force. so partly it was just that the federal government was being outgunned. >> is it working? >> there's a stalemate in place. it worked initially.

a sort of shock-and-awe element to having the army patrol the streets. but over time the cartels have adjusted to the new reality. and if you take, say,cyud juarez in mexico last month it was the deadliest month since the mexican revolution in that city. so it's not seen as a viable long-term strategy, no. >> the united states, i understand, has promised mexico more than a billion dollars to help win their drug war. but very little money has actually gotten there. and i'm wondering, you know, what is the hold up and how might that be hurting mexico's efforts? >> it's very frustrating for mexico because there have been all kind of holed ups in terms of procurement, in terms of the appropriations process in the congress, helicopters that were promised have not been delivered. some of the aid is conditioned on human rights and certification by the congress that the army's not abusing human rights in mexico. there have been any number of excuses to not deliver aid which

is insufficient to begin with. >> the president was in guadalajara this weekend and i mean president obama and he reiterated america's commitment to helping fight this drug war. what kind of action would mexico like to see from the united states? >> well, the important -- one of the important things is we shouldn't think of it in terms of helping mexico with its drug fight. i think the positive step that obama took and that hillary clinton took earlier was in acknowledging that this is a shared responsibility. this is essentially a war that we're feeling with our consumption of drugs and our -- and the money coming from the united states. and guns, not to mention guns. so the americans need to step up and close the gap between that acknowledgement and what actually is in place in terms of the effort. mexico needs a lot of military hardware, a lot more training of its forces, and mexico needs to be more accepting of a more visible presence for the u.s. in this effort too. because there are sovereignty

concerns you know that are based -- rooted in history that also make it a little bit hard for mexico to receive some the aid that is necessary. so it's kind of a two-way street in terms of the adapting that needs to take place to confront the severity of the problem. >> andres martinez from the new america foundation, thank you very much. >> thank you. and if you would like to know more you can find extended coverage on mexico's war on drugs including more signature videos and our blogger analysis of the u.s. role at worldfocus.org. rescue workers say they've found as many as 1,000 survivors of this weekend's typhoon. in remote regions of taiwan. heavy rains and flooding rivers continue to slow the search and hundreds are still missing and feared dead. in one village buried under a mudslide, the only sign of life that there was a stranded cat. the storm dumped close to 80

inches of rain on the island and also struck the philippines and eastern china. water -- too much or too little -- is a growing problem for communities world wide. and tonight we have the second part of our series on the changing global environment from our new partner, the united nations environmental program, unep, and its irin films project. tonight the filmmakers take us high up into the himalayas in the country of nepal where villagers are struggling with severe drought as rising temperatures melt away the glaciers that supply their fresh water. >> reporter: in nepal himalaya is home to most of the world's highest peaks but it's also on the front line on the fight against climate change. rivers that start in these mountains provide more than 1/4 of its population with its water. and the source of that water is running dry. he is a world-class mountaineer who has climbed everest twice and seen the signs of climate change firsthand.

>> come out here is a mountainous is almost 6,000 meters, 5,800. and in my father's time when he was younger, they used to have a glacier up there. and that's where the fresh water used to come from. the ice would met. and it would come down these little streams here as you can see. but now there is no glacier. so the ice is melting. now our village's suffering chronic water shortages. >> reporter: still only 24 years old, he has already won many awards for his environmental ht now he's rking on a plan to solve the water crisis in his village. >> okay, welcome back. >> oh, thank you. >> reporter: together with fellow residents, he hopes to development a gravity water system. that will pipe water from the nearest lake five kilometers

away but until they can raise the money they depend on the snowfall to keep the taps running. a centuries old way of life is under threat. [ speaking in native tongue ] >> when i was young, we had normally one meter of -- one meter height of snow be normal. but now if we -- if we got six inches of snow, then that is big snow. >> reporter: there are many thousands more villages like this across the himalayas. all of them now facing an uncertain future.

>> in our buddhism mantra, it says it's like a heaven. >> yeah. >> all around mountain here. and very clean environment place here. so if we live here and then work, where we go? so many hospitals. so many dirty places? no never it's not possible. so we have to pray god not to move. tomorrow we'll meet with buddhist monks replanting a cambodian forest and praying their efforts bring much-needed rain. finally, we have an excerpt from tonight's edition of the pbs series "wide angle."

"victory is your duty," it's the story of two young cuban boxers who dream of becoming champions while struggling through havana's boxing academy where the curriculum is a combination of athletics and a constant stream of government propaganda. >> reporter: 10-year-old cristian martinez attends the havana boxing academy with many of the country's best young boxers. they live in six days a week under a strict regime of four hours' daily training, combined with a diet that leaves them perpetually hungry. during the day the boys attend a local school for a full schedule of classes.

>> reporter: right after school cristian is back in the academy. only 10 of these 24 boys will make it to the championships. one for each weight division. [ speaking in native tongue ] >> reporter: after winning the championships eight years in a row, havana lost their trophy in 2006. >> reporter: it's a day that still haunts cristian.

[ speaking in native tongue ]

check your local listings for "wide angle." you can also find it online at pbs.org/wideangle. and that's "worldfocus" for this wednesday. there is always more news from around the globe on our website. that's worldfocus.org. i'm martin savidge in new york. as always, thank you for joining us. we hope to see you back here again tomorrow and we'll look for you anytime on the world wide web. until then have a good night. "worldfocus" is made possible in part by the following funders -- -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com