Afghans battle to push back Taliban

Afghan forces battled yesterday to push back Taliban fighters who have overrun Sangin in Helmand province and officials denied insurgents' claims that police and administrative buildings in the district centre had fallen.

Earlier Acting Defence Minister Masoom Stanekzai said reinforcements had arrived in the area where government forces were preparing operations to push back the Taliban.

"The military is in position and the operation is ongoing," Stanekzai told a news conference in Kabul, adding that reinforcements would to relieve troops in Sangin.

The Taliban said in an online statement that the district centre of Sangin had been completely overrun with large quantities of weapons and equipment captured but army spokesman Mohammad Rasoul Zarzai dismissed the claims as "baseless".

Although much attention has been focused on Sangin, fierce fighting has been underway across much of Helmand, a traditional stronghold of the Taliban and a major centre for opium that US and British troops fought for years to control.

Military advisers from Britain have joined other Nato advisers in Helmand to help Afghan forces who have struggled to contain the insurgency.

Nato officials say the troops sent to Helmand are not taking a direct part in combat and they have not confirmed reports that special forces were among the advisers. The Taliban said the reinforcements showed the government's desperation.

"The Kabul administration cannot protect themselves without foreigners and the nation does not accept that," Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a spokesman for Taliban, said in a statement.