Two British soldiers killed in Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, June 27 (Reuters) Two British soldiers were killed in fighting today in southern Afghanistan, where US-led forces are mounting their biggest offensive against Taliban militia since 2002.

A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman in London said they were killed in action in the Sangin valley of Helmand province, in the southwest of the country, in the early hours of the morning.

''Two members of the UK armed forces have been killed in action in Afghanistan,'' she said. ''The next of kin are being informed but there are no further details.'' The deaths are the second and third British military fatalities since UK forces were deployed to the volatile area of Helmand in recent months.

A spokesman for the Taliban said its fighters had killed a large number of foreign and Afghan troops in Helmand and destroyed three trucks carrying supplies for foreign forces.

The spokesman, Qari Mohammad Yousuf, said the fighting went on for four hours. Residents in the area reported heavy fighting including airstrikes by foreign forces.

Helmand police chief Nabi Mullahkhail said 13 Taliban had been killed in the fighting early today. He said no Afghan troops were killed.

Violence has surged in Afghanistan this year to its worst level since the hardline Islamist militia was ousted in 2001 for refusing to give up Osama bin Laden. More than 1,100 people, including nearly 50 foreign troops, have been killed.

Britain has about 3,300 troops in Helmand, who will soon be brought under a NATO peacekeeping mission expanding into the south of the country.

For now they remain under command of US forces who this month launched an operation to flush Taliban guerrillas out of the hills, billed as the biggest Western offensive in Afghanistan since 2002.

The Sangin valley has seen a surge of Taliban activity. Last week British paratroopers moved into the town of Sangin in a pre-dawn helicopter lift.

They also maintain a forward operating base with Afghan troops nearby, and roads through the valley are used by US-led forces for convoys reaching higher into the mountains.

British commanders say they have met a Taliban enemy fiercer than they expected, and have responded by moving more quickly than they initially planned into remote areas -- some of which have seen no outside military presence for decades.

A British soldier was killed and two more seriously wounded in a gunbattle with Taliban forces in Helmand this month.

REUTERS SHB RN1634