Taliban kidnap Briton, two Afghans

KABUL, Mar 6 (Reuters) The Taliban said today they had captured a British journalist and two Afghans in the southern province of Helmand, a major drug producer, but gave no further details.

A Pakistani newspaper identified the Briton, kidnapped yesterday, as John Nichol.

''He was pretending to be a journalist, but when we investigated we found he's working for the British troops,'' Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf told Reuters by satellite phone from an undisclosed location.

''We're interrogating him and the other two.'' NATO and Afghan forces today launched their biggest offensive yet against the Taliban and drug lords in Helmand, one of the country's most dangerous areas.

Italian journalist Gabriele Torsello was kidnapped in Helmand in October and held for three weeks. And a crew working for al Jazeera television -- three Afghans and a Briton -- were held overnight last month while travelling from neighbouring Kandahar to Helmand.

REUTERS MS KN1827