Afghan assault disrupts Taliban leadership: NATO

LONDON (Reuters) - An Afghan and NATO offensive against a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan has "significantly dislocated" the insurgents' leadership in the area, a NATO commander said on Tuesday.

Major General Nick Carter, the British commander of NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, said Afghan and international troops had had to deal with home-made bombs, minefields and some determined opposition during the assault on Marjah, one of the biggest against the Taliban since the war began in 2001.

"We have had some significant resistance from isolated groups of fighters -- foreign fighters have been identified there -- and of course the area was well prepared for defense and it's taken a while to winkle some of the insurgents out," he told reporters in London by video link from Afghanistan.

The foreign fighters were "Pakistani-based," he said.

But he said: "In terms of the leadership on the ground our sense is that they have been significantly dislocated."

"The nature of the resistance that both the U.S. Marine Corps and the ASF (Afghan security forces) have met in Marjah would indicate that that is the case," he said, saying the troops had encountered a "collection of disparate groupings."

He said he was not aware that the Taliban's top military commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar -- said by U.S. and Pakistani officials to have been captured in Pakistan -- had been involved specifically in the Marjah area.

Carter said about four NATO or Afghan soldiers had been killed during the offensive and about 35 wounded. He declined to estimate how many insurgents had been killed or captured.

He said he had been surprised by the quantity of mines that the insurgents had laid. Key routes had been blocked by "barrier minefields" across the southeastern and northwestern corners of Marjah and a number of major junctions had been mined, he said.

"They are significant obstacles. They do need to be cleared very carefully and they are sophisticated," he said.

"They (the insurgents) have done a lot of work to prepare this place," Carter said.

Marjah was about two-thirds cleared of insurgents now but it would take several more days to complete the operation there, he said.

It would be months before commanders could judge whether the operation had been a success, he said.

"We have to demonstrate our commitment to the population and we have to ensure that we begin to protect them and that they are confident that we will stay to protect them," he said.

The focus would now turn to "political outreach" in the area, he said, adding there could be opportunities to encourage some rank-and-file Taliban fighters to lay down their arms.

The Helmand assault tests U.S. President Barack Obama's plan to send 30,000 more troops to seize insurgent-held areas before a planned 2011 troop drawdown. British and Afghan forces are also involved in the operation.