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"Operation Achilles" Targets Taliban

NATO Launches Major Offensive in Southern Afghanistan

NATO and Afghan troops have launched their biggest ever joint offensive against Taliban militants. "Operation Achilles" is aimed at wresting control from insurgents in the Helmand province of southern Afghanistan. One soldier has been killed and the Taliban say they have kidnapped a Briton and two Afghans.

NATO-led troops have started a major offensive against Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan that will involve more than 4,500 NATO troops and close to 1,000 Afghan personnel, NATO said on Tuesday.

"Operation Achilles" in Afghanistan's volatile Helmand province was launched at the request of the Afghan government and will focus on northern Helmand, NATO said in a statement.

"Our first maneuver elements reached their positions at approximately 5:00 a.m. (0030 GMT) this morning," Major General Ton van Loon, NATO's commander in the south, said in a statement. At its peak, Operation Achilles will eventually involve over 4,500 NATO troops and close to 1,000 Afghan troops, he added.

ISAF said later in the day that one soldier had been killed in the operation so far. It did not give his nationality.

Meanwhile the Taliban said they had kidnapped a Briton and two Afghans in Helmand. Unconfirmed media reports said the kidnapped people were journalists. The Taliban have so far made no demands. Reports suggested the three had been accused of spying and were being detained at a Taliban base.

A car, satellite phones and cameras had also been taken and the men were being questioned, a Taliban spokesman said. Taliban commanders were reported to have carried out the kidnapping on Monday. The British foreign ministry spokesman in London said it was looking into the claims.

Van Toon said Achilles was the largest multi-national combined operation by NATO's International Security Force (ISAF) and the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) to date. "It signifies the beginning of a planned offensive to bring security to northern Helmand and set the conditions for meaningful development that will fundamentally improve the quality of life for Afghans in the area,” he added.

The Afghan government has lost control over parts of northern Helmand, including Musa Qala district, where Taliban militants took over on February 1. Helmand is the world's biggest producer of opium, and a new United Nations drug assessment indicates that this year's poppy harvest may be even higher than last year's record output.

"There is no scheduled end date to this operation," the NATO statement said. "ISAF and ANSF forces will continue to apply pressure to extremist forces and pursue reconstruction and development objectives until they are achieved."

The Taliban have themselves announced a spring offensive and said they are planning a wave of suicide attacks. Last year more than 4,000 people were killed in violence in Afghanistan, a quarter of them civilians, marking the biggest death toll since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Most of the deaths occurred in the south.

Some 35,000 soldiers from NATO's ISAF, drawn from 37 countries, are currently stationed in Afghanistan. The US has 22,000 troops in Afghanistan, of whom 13,000 are under ISAF command, and wants to increase its presence in the country by a further 3,200 troops.

Alongside ISAF, US-led coalition troops are also operating under the mission "Enduring Freedom" in Afghanistan to hunt for terrorists.

cro/reuters/ap