Taliban accused of using human shields

About 15,000 Nato and Afghan troops are deployed around Marjah, a town of about 80,000 people in southern Helmand. With Operation Moshtarak in its fifth day, an Afghan army soldier climbed to the roof of an abandoned shop and raised a large bamboo pole with Afghanistan's official green-and-red flag watched by foreign and Afghan troops and a handfuls of civilians.

But signs of fighting were everywhere. The back of the building over which the flag waved had been blown away. Shops were riddled with bullets. Grocery stores and fruit stalls were deserted while white metal fences marked off areas that had not yet been cleared of bombs.

Afghan soldiers said they were guarding the shops to prevent looting and hoped their owners would soon feel safe enough to return.

Taliban resistance started to seem more disorganised than in the first few days of the assault, when small teams of insurgents swarmed around Nato positions firing rifles, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

The offensive in Marjah is the biggest assault since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. It has come at high cost, and Nato confirms 15 civilian deaths, while Afghan groups say at least 19 have been killed.

Afghan commander General Mohiudin Ghori claimed the Taliban were deliberately firing at Afghan troops from inside or next to compounds where women and children had been ordered to stand on a roof or in a window.

"Especially in the south of Marjah, the enemy is fighting from compounds where soldiers can very clearly see women or children on the roof or in a second-floor or third-floor window," he said. "They are trying to get us to fire on them and kill the civilians."

Gen. Ghori said troops either avoided firing at the insurgents with civilians nearby or had to target and advance much more slowly in order to distinguish between militants and civilians.

Afghan police chosen for the task in Marjah were selected from other regions of the country in order to avoid handing over day-to-day security to officers with ties to the Taliban.

n Pakistan military chief Major General Athar Abbas has officially confirmed that the Afghan Taliban's number two leader Mullah Baradar is being held in custody in Pakistan after being arrested in a swoop on militants in Karachi.