US attacking Taliban in drug area

Reuters via Times of Oman:

US forces were involved in heavy fighting with Taliban guerrillas in Afghanistan on Saturday but there was no immediate word on casualties, provincial officials said.

Afghanistan has seen a surge in attacks by Taliban insurgents and their militant allies in recent months and the Taliban have vowed to launch a spring offensive against US-led foreign forces and the Western-backed government.

The clash erupted after US troops backed by helicopter gunships and jets launched an operation in the Sangin district of the southern province of Helmand, after being tipped-off about the presence of Taliban in a village, police said.

...

Several villagers from Sangin said by telephone some Taliban had been staying a house that got bombed. Helmand has been a bastion of Taliban insurgents since US and Afghan opposition forces ousted their government in late 2001.

The province is also Afghanistan's main opium-growing region and the insurgents are in league with drug gangs, complicating efforts to bring security and stamp out drugs,
security officials say. British troops have been arriving in the province in recent weeks as part of an expansion of a NATO-led peacekeeping force into the Afghan south. In all, 3,300 British troops will soon be based in Helmand.

This sounds like an area in need of attention.