Nato troops launch attacks

Around 900 US Marines and sailors, British troops and more than 150 Afghan soldiers and police were taking part in Operation Khareh Cobra. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

KABUL - MORE than 1,000 Nato soldiers, mainly from the United States, launched a major offensive on Friday aimed at clearing insurgents out of a key battleground in southern Afghanistan, the military said.

The Nato-run International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) announced the offensive in Helmand just two days after US President Barack Obama ordered the deployment of 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan in a bid to end the war.

Helmand is the heartland of Afghanistan's massive opium production and the Taleban-led insurgency that seeks to overthrow the Western-backed government and evict around 113,000 Nato and US troops from the country.

'More than 1,000 ISAF personnel partnered with Afghan national security forces began a long-planned operation in northern Helmand province to clear insurgent forces from a key area,' the military said.

Around 900 US Marines and sailors, British troops and more than 150 Afghan soldiers and police were taking part in Operation Khareh Cobra, which the military translated as 'Cobra's Anger', in the Now Zad valley.

The operation was launched as Nato nations pledged at least 7,000 troops to back the new US-led drive against the Taleban and Al-Qaeda, after the United States urged its partners to help finish the war in Afghanistan. -- AFP