After seizing Garmsir, the Marines pushed further south into an area where the insurgents had built bunkers and tunnels capable of withstanding coalition airstrikes. They ran into stiff resistance and the operation, expected to take a few days, lasted more than a month. This implied to the ISAF commander that the town was important to the insurgents, as such the Marines were ordered to remain in the area in order to keep the pressure up. With the original mission changed, the Marines transitioned from combat operations to civil operations.
