More on the Musa Qala actions from the Daily Telegraph:
Thousands of UK troops in Afghan assault
By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent and Tom Coghlan in Kabul
Last Updated: 11:56pm GMT 08/12/2007
British troops have been involved in a major offensive in southern Afghanistan to recapture the Taliban's most heavily defended and strategically important stronghold.
The operation on Saturday night, using thousands of soldiers and described as the biggest ever undertaken by British troops in Afghanistan, has so far left two Britons dead and several wounded.
British forces conducted probing attacks against the Taliban positions to gather intelligence on the insurgent forces
Attack helicopters and combat jets have spent the past few days pummelling Taliban defensive positions surrounding Musa Qala in preparation for the final assault on the last remaining major town held by enemy insurgents in Helmand.
Early on Saturday, coalition forces, which include the British Army's 52 Brigade, the Afghan National Army and America's Task Force Fury, successfully surrounded the Taliban stronghold, where insurgent commanders claim up to 2,000 of their fighters are based.
The Taliban responded with a series of small-scale but bitter exchanges with the coalition forces which resulted in a number of British and Afghan army casualties. A member of the 2nd Bn Yorkshire Regiment died, said the Ministry of Defence, declining to name the soldier.
The latest phase of the operation began at dusk on Friday when hundreds of airborne troops from Task Force Fury launched an assault by helicopter on an area north of the town, a complex of high-walled compounds and narrow, dusty alleyways which armoured vehicles find difficult to penetrate.
Taliban commanders said that many of their 2,000 fighters - a figure the British dispute - were prepared to fight to the death while others would launch suicide bombing attacks against advancing coalition troops....
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Also:
A deadly Afghan battle like none other
By Sean Rayment and Tom Coghlan in Kabul
Last Updated: 1:11am GMT 09/12/2007
Operation Mar Kardad (or "Snakebite") was secretly launched early on November 2 - well before dawn.
A small British force set off northward from their base in Sangin along Route 611, the dirt track that forms the main highway to Musa Qala, the Taliban's last remaining stronghold in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan.
Troops on foot and in armoured vehicles were ordered to probe the Taliban's defences on the outskirts of the town to discover where they were strongest and weakest - vital intelligence for the battle ahead.
The Taliban knew the British would one day attack. Only the date was uncertain. But after a senior Taliban commander defected to President Hamid Karzai's government, Nato chiefs decided the time had come to strike.
This weekend, their forces are engaged in a battle like none other since British troops entered Helmand in April last year.
More British forces are being used in this action than in any other battle in Afghanistan: anything up to 3,000 of the total force of 7,000 in the country, although commanders refused to be specific. .....
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And:
Loss of mountain stronghold will hurt Taliban
By Sean Rayment
Last Updated: 1:11am GMT 09/12/2007
Analysis: The hub of their narcotics trade will fall, but this is not the end of the insurgents, writes Sean Rayment
The town of Musa Qala, which sits high in the north of Helmand, has strategic and symbolic value for both the British forces and the Taliban.
Last year it was occupied by British troops for more than three months, until resupplying problems caused them to withdraw.....
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