Hundreds of Afghan villagers have fled from their homes after the biggest battle in months between Taliban insurgents and US-backed Afghan security forces, provincial officials said today.
Taliban insurgents launched a series of attacks in the restive southern province of Helmand on Friday and fighting raged for several hours.
Officials said up to 200 Taliban were involved in the attacks and 20 of them were killed and 20 wounded. Five policemen were killed and 16 wounded, they said.
On Saturday, all was quiet in the villages that were rocked by the fighting.
"There are 200 houses in this village and almost all of these people have left," said the deputy governor of Helmand, Mullah Mir, in Josh Aali village.
Rifle bullet casings littered the ground and blood stains could be seen in several places.
Apart from a few dogs wandering about and some police looking for any Taliban still hiding out, the settlement of mud-built houses looked like a ghost town.
Mir said he did not know where the villagers had gone. Another official, who declined to be identified, said security forces did not usually have a heavy presence in the area and villagers had fled in fear of more fighting.
Helmand has been plagued by insurgents since U.S. forces and their Afghan allies ousted the Taliban in late 2001. It is also a major opium-poppy growing and drug smuggling region.
Several thousand British troops are due to be deployed in Helmand this year under a plan to expand Afghanistan's NATO-led peacekeeping force.
The United Sates heads a separate force, made up mostly of US troops, fighting insurgents and hunting for their leaders.