US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrived in Afghanistan today in the midst of the most intense phase of Taliban violence since the Islamists were ousted from power in 2001.
Mr Rumsfeld, on his 11th trip to Afghanistan, is to meet US commanders and President Hamid Karzai to discuss the violence and plans for Nato to take over military operations from a US-led force in the south this month.
In the latest fighting, US-led forces and Afghan troops killed about 30 militants in a volatile district of the southern province of Helmand.
Coalition and Afghan troops suffered no casualties in the operation in the Sangin district, a US military spokeswoman said, adding that one helicopter was forced to land and had to be destroyed.
The violence, nearly five years after the Taliban were ousted, has taken the government and its Western backers by surprise and raised concern for the Nato peacekeeping mission that is due to take over in the south.
The US-led coalition has responded to the violence with offensives to push the insurgents back. Hundreds of people, most of them Taliban, have been killed in the past two months, according to US and Afghan figures.
Britain announced yesterday it would send 900 more troops and additional helicopters to Helmand where British troops have faced fierce Taliban resistance.
The reinforcements will arrive over coming months bringing the total to 4,500 in the south.
Six British soldiers have been killed in Helmand's Sangin district in the past month. In all, more than 60 foreign soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan this year.