Troops conducting one of the British military's largest operations in Afghanistan have cleared a Taliban stronghold in the south and are encouraging villagers to return, an officer said Thursday. About 12 British and US Chinook helicopters dropped 350 British troops into the Babaji area of the southern province of Helmand at midnight Friday, in the largest British-led air assault operation in Afghanistan.
"The operation continues to be successful and we are now encouraging the locals to return to the area to benefit from the improved security and freedom from Taliban control," British Lieutenant Colonel Nick Richardson told AFP. Babaji is about 12 kilometres (eight miles) north of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand - a vast desert province that shares a porous border with Pakistan across which militants are said to enter the Afghan insurgency. The British troops working with Afghan forces had "pushed the Taliban out of one of their strongholds," Richardson said.