Taliban militants determined to scuttle Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections showered rockets on cities today as men and women voted in a key test of the government’s ability to fight insurgents and entrenched corruption.

At least two people have been killed in the first hours of polling in Afghanistan’s parliamentary election, officials said.

US Marines and Afghan soldiers stormed the Taliban-held town of Marjah today, as a major offensive began to break the extremists’ grip over a wide area of their southern heartland and re-establish government control.