Coalition forces in Afghanistan are to push forward with their anti-Taliban offensive, despite the deaths of 12 civilians and a British soldier.

Twelve Afghans died today when two rockets fired at insurgents missed their target and struck a house during the second day of Operation Moshtarak – Nato’s most ambitious effort yet to break the militants’ grip on the country’s dangerous south.

The first stage of the fierce onslaught against the Taliban has “gone to plan”, the UK Ministry of Defence said today.

Squads of US Marines and Afghan soldiers slowly pressed deeper into the Taliban stronghold of Marjah today, painstakingly clearing out booby-trapped houses one by one.

Two Nato troops and a British soldier have been killed during the ongoing anti-Taliban offensive in Afghanistan.

The fiercest military offensive on the Taliban since the conflict in Afghanistan began has so far gone “as well as it could have done”, British Army chiefs said today.