KABUL, Sept 5: Nato forces claimed killing 60 fighters in artillery and air strikes and ground battles on Tuesday in a major offensive to crush a revitalised Taliban in southern Afghanistan.

“We are closing the circle on the Taliban. We have got the Taliban in a bit of a trap,” Major Quentin Innes, a spokesman for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) said.

Last weekend, Nato launched Operation Medusa, its biggest offensive against an increasingly active Taliban, in Kandahar province.

The operation is focused on Panjwai district, near Kandahar, capital of the province of the same name, and is being supported by air strikes.

Panjwai has been the scene of a series of operations by Afghan and foreign forces this year. Several thousand civilians have fled in the face of previous battles and residents say many have died in the latest fighting.

Medusa was launched after Nato forces encountered stiffer than expected Taliban resistance as they took over the south from US-led troops in the alliance’s biggest ground operation.

Nato says it has killed more than 250 guerillas, a claim the Taliban dispute. Five Canadian soldiers have died in combat and 14 British troops were killed when their plane crashed early in the offensive.—Reuters