The Taleban have seized the home village of the British-backed Governor of Musa Qala after several days of fighting, Afghan and Nato officials in Helmand told The Times.
Ministry of Defence officials said that Nato forces helped to evacuate the village of Shah Karez, ten miles (16km) east of Musa Qala.
The village is the home of Mullah Abdul Salaam, who defected from the Taleban in December 2007, bringing a private army with him.
More than 50 Afghan policemen, all former members of Mullah Salaams militia, were forced to abandon Shah Karez after 5 of their comrades were killed and 16 were injured in a series of what local people claimed were co-ordinated Taleban attacks.
Related LinksU2 eye-in-the-sky plane"s new lease of lifeAl-Qaeda-linked group sets peace terms for KarzaiAfghan prison may become the new Guant�namoThe police held out as long as they could, Mullah Salaam told The Times. There have been 50 or 60 police in Shah Karez for two years, he said. The Taleban attacked many times and I always asked the Government for more troops but they never came.
Members of the Household Cavalry Battlegroup have been holding Musa Qala and British and Afghan troops have been trying to expand a security bubble north and south of the town centre in recent months. However, in line with Nato strategy, they have largely ignored other areas where there is little population.
The MoD suggested that the fighting was a local dispute and not a clear-cut Taleban attack.
The Afghan Army and Police, supported by ISAF forces, recently assisted the safe evacuation of local civilians when fighting broke out between local groups in the area of Shah Karez, some way to the east of Musa Qala district centre. The village is not within the parts of the district that are secured by ISAF and ANSF forces.
Michael Semple, a former British diplomat based in Harvard, said: It looks like this is a calculated blow versus Mullah Salaam and a bid to tax the local opium.
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