KABUL, March 23: At least 89 people, including 69 Taliban militants, were killed in two days of fighting in Afghanistan, officials said on Friday, as violence soared with the onset of spring.

The militants were killed in fighting with Afghan forces in the south on Thursday after the troops, backed by NATO forces, launched an offensive against the rebels in two areas in Girishk district of Helmand province.

Seven policemen were also killed and 19 Afghan soldiers wounded, Defence Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi told a news conference, adding troops had begun a “cleaning up operation” after the attacks.

“Even though our forces did not have enough equipment like tanks and armed vehicles but with the weapons that they had ...they could inflict heavy losses on the enemy in several hours of fighting,” Azimi said.

He said many rebel bodies still remained on the battlefield while the Taliban had taken away 10 of their fallen comrades.

Seventeen guerrillas had also been arrested, Azimi added.

Elsewhere, 12 private Afghan security guards and an Afghan driver were killed in the southern province of Kandahar on Friday when the Taliban ambushed their convoy of supplies for coalition troops, their Afghan contractor said.

Fighting has intensified across Afghanistan after winter and analysts say 2007 is a make-or-break year for the Taliban as well as their opponents.

Last year was the bloodiest since the hard-line Islamists were ousted by US-led forces in 2001.

NATO and the Afghan armed forces have launched their largest offensive ever in Helmand, targeting the Taliban and drug lords who are reaping record crops for the second year running.

Operation Achilles in northern Helmand involves 4,500 NATO troops and 1,000 Afghans.

A statement from the coalition said NATO troops provided flank protection, air support and medical evacuation during Thursday's offensive.

“This particular component of Operation Achilles is being conducted to put pressure on Taliban extremists, foreign terrorists and their narco-trafficking criminal associates that continue to operate within the general population,” it said.

Helmand is the main drug-producing region of Afghanistan, the world's leading producer of heroin.—Reuters