Troops target Taliban stronghold

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.

Homemade bombs and mines slowed the advance of thousands of US, British and Afghan soldiers moving through the Taliban-held area – Operation Moshtarak is Nato’s most ambitious effort yet to break the militants’ grip over their southern heartland.