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British soldier dies in Afghanistan offensive on Taleban

13 February 2010 19:34 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. A British soldier died as more than 15,000 troops launched the biggest military offensive in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taleban in 2001, APA reports citing â€œTimesOnlineâ€ website.

The soldier from 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards was killed by an explosion while on vehicle patrol in Nad Ali, Helmand province, in the early stages of Operation Moshtarak, comrades said.

The announcement came as army chief said the surge into the district of Marjah, the last major Taleban stronghold just south of Nad Ali, is going "as well as it could have done".

At least 20 Taleban fighters were killed and 11 arrested as troops seized 11 of the 13 target locations, officials said. One US Marine died in small arms fire.

Two hours before dawn wave upon wave of helicopters ferried the first of more than 15,000 Nato-led troops - including 1,200 British soldiers - into the area. Within hours US Marines and Afghan troops have crossed a major canal that into the northern entrance to Marjah town, where up to 1,000 Taleban insurgents are thought to be holed up among the population of 80,000.

British soldiers were flown into the neighbouring Nad Ali district, followed by tanks and combat engineering units. Major General Gordon Messenger, the chief of the defence staffâ€™s spokesman, said Operation Moshtarak had already secured its "key objectives". â€œThereâ€™s a real sense that the job last night went as well as it could have done,â€ he said.

At a briefing on Saturday at the Ministry of Defenceâ€™s Whitehall headquarters, Messenger added: â€œThereâ€™s no complacency - everyone understands this is the easy bit. â€œThe hard bit is what comes next in reassuring the public. This is all about winning the allegiance of the population. The allegiance is not won in a day it must be won over time. It cannot be forced.â€ But a Taleban spokesman dismissed the Nato progress reports as â€œpropagandaâ€.

â€œAll of Marjah is still under Taleban control,â€ Qari Yousef Ahmadi told The Associated Press by phone. â€œThe Taleban are there and they are fighting.â€