(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-09-19 17:15

LASHKAR GAH - NATO-led forces launched a major operation in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, aiming to clear Taliban insurgents from a valley in Helmand - the most violent province in the country.

A spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said the operation began on Wednesday morning to clear insurgents from Helmand's upper Gereshk valley.

"This is an operation that has been several weeks, several months in the planning," Major Charles Anthony told a news conference. "It is an operation to help clear Taliban insurgents from that particular area and to help restore governance."

The operation was being led by ISAF forces supported by the Afghan army, he said, but declined to give further details.

Helmand is Afghanistan's most violent region with daily clashes between Taliban insurgents, who control large parts of the province, and Afghan, British and US forces.

British forces make up the majority of ISAF troops in Helmand, while US-led coalition forces have also conducted a number of operations in the region.

British troops are attempting to steadily extend Afghan government control of towns and villages along the Helmand River valley - a lush fertile strip of land flanked by desert where most of the world's heroin is grown.

A suicide bomber wounded eight Afghan policemen in the town of Garmser southwest along the Helmand River from Gereshk. Three of the officers were in a serious condition, Helmand police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal told reporters.

Elsewhere, two US-led coalition soldiers were wounded on Tuesday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in the eastern province of Paktia, the US military said on Wednesday.

Afghan troops killed three militants and detained four more in Wardak province, immediately southwest of the capital, Kabul, a Defence Ministry statement said.

The troops also defused two roadside bombs.

Afghanistan has seen a steady escalation of violence over the last two years, the worst since Afghan and US-led forces toppled the Taliban in 2001.