Afghan and British troops are winning the battle to retake the Taliban-held town of Musa Qala, officials said Sunday, warning the rebels to surrender after deadly gunbattles near the southern stronghold.
Soldiers exchanged fire with the militants two kilometres (one mile) from the centre of the town in Helmand province and captured two Taliban commanders, a statement from the Afghan defence ministry said.
"The enemy has lost their morale and our troops are advancing with success," the statement said.
"The Taliban must leave Musa Qala or face waves of attacks."
Musa Qala has become a base for the Taliban, who were in government between 1996 and 2001 and are now waging an intensifying insurgency that has this year left around 6,000 people dead.
British and Afghan troops are leading the operation officially launched on Friday to take it back from the rebels, who moved in 10 months ago breaking a deal which led British forces to pull out.
"The ANA (Afghan National Army) troops backed by Nato forces continue advancing from south and west directions and this past night the troops advanced from the north too," the statement added.
Britain has already lost a soldier in a mine explosion, while two children and about a dozen Taliban have also been killed, defence officials said Friday.
A British military spokesman in Helmand, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Eaton, said the operation would continue until the door to Musa Qala was "kicked in."
"And once the door is kicked in, the Afghan army will enter," he said.
A Taliban commander in the area, Abdul Satar, said rebel leaders had left after the launch of the operation. "But our mujahedin (fighters) are resisting," he said.
Another Taliban leader has claimed there are up to 2,000 rebel fighters in the town but this could not be independently verified.
Clashes also erupted early Sunday outside the town, a resident who gave his name as Mahmood told AFP by telephone. "The Taliban resisted and there is no fighting at this time," he said.
A Taliban spokesman, Yousuf Ahmadi, also said fighting had now stopped. ISAF said that its soldiers were moving cautiously because of the threat of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). "The concern about IEDs is high so they are moving in methodically," spokesman Major Charles Anthony told AFP.
The campaign involves thousands of Afghan army and ISAF soldiers, with about 200-300 US troops from a US-led coalition also taking part, officials said.
British Defence Secretary Des Browne meanwhile conferred with his Afghan counterpart, Abdul Rahim Wardak, in the capital Kabul on Sunday, officials said, declining to give details of the talks.
On the first day of his visit on Saturday, Browne met British soldiers in the city. Britain will by the end of the month have 7,800 soldiers here as part of the UN-sanctioned ISAF, the second-highest number after the United States.
ISAF and the US-led coalition are helping the growing Afghan security forces to tackle Taliban insurgents, who have carried out a wave of deadly suicide bombings this year. In other clashes between the two sides, 10 Taliban were killed Saturday in the Panjwayi area of Kandahar province, the Afghan defence ministry said Sunday.
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