The reinforcements will double the number of British special forces on the ground and commanders hope that they will be able to deal the Taliban a crippling blow.

Senior defence sources said: “We need to break the back of this offensive now in one fell swoop.”

Des Browne, the defence secretary, is expected to tell MPs tomorrow that at least one additional battle group of about 700 infantry soldiers, extra transport helicopters and more ground attack aircraft are also being sent.

The move is in response to intelligence indicating that fighting in which six British soldiers have died may be the prelude to a much larger Taliban offensive.

The only frontline British soldiers on the ground in Helmand are one infantry battalion and a company of Gurkhas. The rest of the 3,300-strong British taskforce is made up of support troops.

Dozens of comrades of Lance Corporal Jabron Hashmi, 24, the British soldier killed in Afghanistan, joined his family and friends yesterday to say farewell to a “hero of Islam”. At least 400 people attended the funeral at the Central Jamia Mosque in Small Heath, Birmingham.

• A Peruvian serving with the Spanish military contingent in Herat province, western Afghanistan, was killed in an explosion yesterday. Four Spanish soldiers were injured.

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