US forces and Taliban said in Afghan clash

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) – U.S. forces were involved
in heavy fighting with Taliban guerrillas in Afghanistan on
Saturday but there was no immediate word on casualties, a
provincial official said.

Afghanistan has seen a surge in attacks by Taliban
insurgents and their militant allies in recent months and the
Taliban have vowed to launch a spring offensive against
U.S.-led foreign forces and the Western-backed government.

The clash erupted after U.S. troops backed by helicopter
gunships launched an operation in the Sangin district of the
southern province of Helmand, said an administrative official
in the province.

“It’s very heavy,” the official, who declined to be
identified, said of the clash.

Afghan forces had been sent to join the U.S. forces
battling the insurgents, he said. U.S. and Afghan forces fought
the biggest battle in months against Taliban fighters in the
same district at the beginning of February.

A U.S. military spokesman said he had no information about
a clash while Taliban spokesmen could not be reached for
comment.

Helmand has been a bastion of Taliban insurgents since U.S.
and Afghan opposition forces ousted their government in late
2001.

The province is also Afghanistan’s main opium-growing
region and the insurgents are in league with drug gangs,
complicating efforts to bring security and stamp out drugs,
security officials say.

British troops have been arriving in the province in recent
weeks as part of an expansion of a NATO-led peacekeeping force
into the Afghan south. In all, 3,300 British troops will soon
be based in Helmand.

A British military spokesman said he had no word on British
forces involved in fighting on Saturday.