We're still in control, Royal Marines tell Afghans after Taleban onslaught

ROYAL Marines were patrolling Helmand yesterday in an attempt to reassure locals the city is still under government control, following an attack from insurgents who tried to overrun the British headquarters in the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah.

More than 100 Taleban were killed in fierce clashes in Helmand over the weekend, with at least 60 bodies ending up in Lashkar Gah's main hospital.

The city has been rocked by suicide blasts in the past, and the Taleban have launched deadly ambushes on British patrols in the outlying countryside, but this was the first time they have ever tried to take the city.

The British headquarters is full of senior army officers, development staff and diplomats, but there is only one company of Royal Marines from 42 Commando to protect it.

There are also a small number of SAS in Lashkar Gah, training the Afghan police.

Until recently the area was thought of as safe.

British officials said it was impossible to guess the insurgents' objective because they didn't get close enough, but residents were left in no doubt the insurgents were trying to overrun the town centre, and they were warned to expect yet more fighting last night.

There were further reports in Lashkar Gah the insurgents planned to hit the police station and the prison, to free fellow insurgents, which echoes a similar attack in Kandahar city, in June.

Brigadier General Richard Blanchette, a spokesman for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force, said: "If the insurgents planned a spectacular attack prior to the winter, this was a spectacular failure."

Afghan troops fought through the night on Saturday after Lashkar Gah was surrounded by almost 200 heavily armed Taleban fighters.

They were backed by Apache helicopter gunships, unmanned predator drones and RAF fighter jets. The Apaches launched a series of air strikes to push the Taleban back.

At least 60 insurgents were killed and another 25 were wounded in eight hours of bitter fighting, on four sides of the provincial capital.

Another 40 insurgents were killed during a three-day operation to retake Nad Ali, a district eight miles west of Lashkar Gah, which fell into Taleban hands in August.

Royal Marines and SAS troopers were on constant standby during the battle, as fighting raged just a few miles from their camp.

Lieutenant Colonel Woody Page, a British forces spokesman, said: "We could hear small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades in the distance until 3am."

News of the attack came as General David McKiernan, the US commander of almost all the international troops in Afghanistan, insisted: "We are not losing," at a press conference in Kabul yesterday.

However, he admitted there were not enough troops to secure the country.

The attack came on the same day that western officials launched an initiative in Lashkar Gah to give poppy farmers wheat seeds, in a bid to undermine the Taleban's income from opium. The Taleban have made numerous attempts to attack Western military bases or district centres, but have usually suffered catastrophic losses.

An attempt to threaten Kandahar City in 2005 saw Nato forces kill up to 1,200 Taleban. An attempt in June to again threaten Kandahar was defeated by the Afghan army with ease. However, an attempt to overrun a small US base in the eastern province of Nuristan in July came close to succeeding.

How allied airstrikes thwarted fierce attack by insurgent force

THE fighting started at around 7:30pm on Saturday, when an Apache helicopter opened fire on a group of 90 insurgents, who had massed close to the Bolan Bridge, a few miles west of Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand.

British troops had been watching the insurgents for more than two hours as they raced to the bridge in Toyota pick-ups, armed with AK47 assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades.

Lieutenant Colonel Woody Page, a British forces spokesman, said: "We think that in the first airstrike 25 people were killed and a similar number were wounded."

The road bridge is where UK reconstruction staff have been trying to dredge a canal and improve a weir to help irrigate farms.

Predator drones then tracked the fighters as they split into four groups, to launch a multi-pronged attack on the city.

Some of the fighters stayed to the west. A second group formed a "block" to the east, while the rest launched attacks from the south and north-east.

Witnesses said the Taleban also launched a series of rocket attacks into the city, aimed at the governor's compound.

The Apaches launched a second wave of strikes at 11pm. At midnight the air filled with Kalashnikov fire, as the insurgents exchanged fire with Afghan forces.