The Times
Jerome Starkey in Kabul, Tom Coghlan

As British troops count the hours until the start of the largest Nato offensive since the US-led invasion of 2001, Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, is witnessing the arrival of a grim procession of frightened refugees desperate to escape the battle.

Nato forces have urged civilians to flee Marjah — one of the most heavily populated parts of rural Helmand — as more than 15,000 British, Afghan and American troops make their final preparations for Operation Moshtarak — “Togetherness”.

However, refugees reaching the city have claimed that as much as 90 per cent of the population are trapped in the war zone by belts of improvised bombs, which have rendered the road network impassable.

With his two-year-old son clasped to his chest, Haji Mohammed Manan said yesterday that he had walked eight hours through flooded opium fields with his wife and seven children to avoid the danger on the roads. (Read more…)