Nato retake Taliban-held town

More than 1,000 troops took part in the operation, supported by air strikes on suspected Taliban positions in the town in Helmand province.

"Military troops have successfully engaged several Taliban extremist strongholds and discovered a number of large weapon caches," Nato's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement late on Friday.

The operation to retake Sangin started late on Wednesday and was part of Nato's largest ever offensive in Afghanistan, Operation Achilles.

Nato commanders are trying to push the Taliban out of the northern tip of Helmand to allow multimillion-dollar repair work to go ahead on a dam in the Kajaki district which would supply the country's south with electricity.

'Information war'

"Six weeks ago Al Jazeera filmed in this same area. It was clear then it was entirely under Taliban control," James Bays, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Afghanistan, said.

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