Brown pays tribute to sacrifices made by troops

The heavily-trailed Operation Moshtarak is expected to start soon with 30,000 international troops and 10,000 Afghans combining to root out Taliban insurgents from their stronghold in the town of Marjah in Helmand province.

Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth has warned of a "very real risk" that British lives will be lost during the fighting.

Media reports yesterday said 400 troops from the US 5th Stryker Brigade and 250 Afghan soldiers had moved into positions north-east of Marjah, the biggest Taliban-controlled town in the south of the country.

Machine gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades were heard but there were no immediate reports of casualties and it was not yet clear when the main offensive will begin and exactly what role UK troops will play.

Speaking in London, Mr Brown said the Afghan-led operation marked an important step in the process of handing over control to local security forces. Moshtarak would see Afghan forces "clearing, holding and building in the main population centres of their own country", said the PM.

He paid tribute to Britain's armed forces, "their professionalism, their dedication, their expertise, their service and their sacrifice".

"Marjah and a small number of other centres are the last remaining

bases for Taliban-led insurgency in the main population areas of Helmand," said Mr Brown.

"The aim of Operation Moshtarak – which means in the Dari language 'together' – is that the Afghans and the coalition work

together for peace, to drive out those lingering points of resistance from the Taliban, to dismantle the bomb-making factories where IEDs

(improvised explosive devices) are assembled to attack our troops and then, by dealing with the insurgents, to make the Afghan population secure."

Mr Ainsworth told the House of Commons Defence Committee yesterday that the unusual decision to announce the operation in advance had been taken in part to avoid civilian casualties, which would damage efforts at winning over the hearts and minds of local people.

70 die in mountain pass avalanches

Avalanches on a mountain pass north of Kabul have killed 70 people, with another 1,500 stranded in their vehicles on snow-blocked roads.

The Afghan defence ministry said that another 250 people were injured and taken to hospitals as the military and police continued efforts to dig out people trapped in the snow. The avalanches were on Monday after heavy snowfall in the Salang Pass which links the Afghan capital with the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.