US forces and Taliban 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,
provincial officials 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 and jets launched an operation in the Sangin district
of the southern province of Helmand, after being tipped-off
about the presence of Taliban in a village, police said.

“There was bombing by jets and helicopters,” Matiuallah,
police chief of Sangin who uses only one name, told Reuters.

Given the “very intense” fighting, Matiuallah said he
assumed their would be casualties but he had no confirmation.

Afghan forces had been sent to join the U.S. forces
battling the insurgents, another official 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. A Taliban commander, Mullah Zainullah, said by
telephone from the area Taliban fighters had killed five Afghan
troops.

Several villagers from Sangin said by telephone some
Taliban had been staying a house that got bombed.

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.