(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-12-08 18:43

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan -- Afghan, British and US troops have launched a major offensive to retake the only sizeable town held by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, Afghan and foreign forces said on Saturday.

The town of Musa Qala in the southern province of Helmand has been the Taliban's biggest power base in Afghanistan since they seized it from tribal elders in February. British troops pulled out of the town a year ago in a truce that handed the elders control after coming under sustained Taliban attacks.

US troops inserted close to the town by helicopter on Friday to begin the attack as British troops moved in by land.

"We are now involved in an advance that is effectively kicking the door in to Musa Qala," said Lieutenant Colonel Richard Eaton, British forces' spokesman in Helmand.

Afghan army units are preparing to follow up the assault on several hundred rebels in and around the town.

Fighting continued on Saturday, but there were no casualties among the NATO-led and US-led coalition forces.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) does not release Taliban casualty figures, but the separate U.S.-led coalition force said an air strike had killed several Taliban including a militant commander in Musa Qala on Friday.

A Taliban commander in Musa Qala said the insurgents had destroyed two NATO armoured vehicles and killed many foreign troops, without suffering any casualties.

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