British troops provided back-up to evacuate Afghan casualties after some of the fiercest violence since the fall of the Taleban erupted across Afghanistan today.

Up to 105 people were killed in the violence, which included two suicide car bombs, multiple firefights and a massive rebel assault on a small village.

Much of the bloodshed occurred in Helmand and Kandahar provinces, where thousands of extra British troops are due to deploy this summer to counter attacks from by insurgents.

In total, the Taleban death toll from fighting last night and today ranged up to 87, US and Afghan officials said. Also, 15 Afghan police officers, one US civilian, a Canadian soldier and an Afghan civilian were killed in the attacks.

An assault by hundreds of enemy fighters on a small southern town was one of the largest attacks by militants since 2001 and marked another escalation in the campaign by supporters of the former Taleban regime to challenge the US-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.

Fighting raged for more than nine hours as hundreds of enemy fighters attacked Musa Qala, a former rebel stronghold in Helmand.

A senior security official said that the fighting began yesterday afternoon when Taleban commanders contacted local police claiming that they had seized the town.

Authorities responded, triggering a series of heavy clashes which raged until the early hours. Government offices, shops, police stations and market stalls were set on fire.

At least 13 police officers were killed along with 40 militants before the fighters withdrew. Amir Mohammad Akhundzada, a local official, told Reuters: "It was the biggest attack [in Helmand] since the fall of the Taleban."

Afghan police reinforcements eventually forced the militants to flee, said Captain Drew Gibson, a spokesman for the British army.

British forces helped evacuate casualties from the large rebel assault in Helmand province but did not provide military backup, he said, in part to allow the Afghan police to prove they could defeat the attackers.

"If they’re the ones who are seen beating off the Taleban, there’s a lot of credibility for them," said Sher Alam, a provincial spokesman. "The ANP (Afghan National Police) did admirably in the circumstances, proven by the fact that Musa Qala is now back under ANP security."

Britain has hundreds of soldiers in the region with a full complement of 3,300 to be deployed by June. On the day that Britain took over command of the Nato forces in the Helmand region, the Taleban leadership gave warning that they would turn Afghanistan into a "river of blood".

Fighting also broke out yesterday in Kandahar, the neighbouring province which is considered even more dangerous. The US-led coalition said that up to 27 Taleban militants were killed during an operation. The military said there were seven confirmed deaths and that 15 to 20 may have been killed in an associated airstrike near the village of Azizi.

In another battle in Kandahar province, Captain Nichola Goddard, a female Canadian soldier, died in the fighting, which also left 18 militants dead.

Canadian soldiers were supporting Afghan forces on a mission to oust Taleban fighters in Panjwayi district, about 30 km (20 miles) west of Kandahar city, when they were engaged by rocket propelled grenades and small arms fire, said Major Scott Lundy, a Canadian military spokesman.

Major Lundy said that military commanders were still studying whether there was a direct connection between the battles in Helmand and Kandahar provinces. He said the one known connection was that all the militants were associated with the Taliban.

The Taleban has rearmed, recruited new followers and stepped up attacks in recent months as the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) expands. Isaf currently has about 9,000 personnel but plans to build up to about 21,000 troops by November.

Taleban rebels are made up of ethnic Pashtuns, the majority in Afghanistan’s southern and eastern regions near the border with Pakistan. Insurgent attacks have been concentrated there, though the violence has rarely been as fierce as the last 24 hours.

Violence continued to escalate elsewhere in the country with two separate suicide attacks.

The first blast hit a convoy of vehicles carrying foreigners in Herat, 400 miles west of Kabul. A US Embassy spokesman said that the blast killed an American who was training police as part of a project to fight the country’s trade in opium and heroin.

The second attack occurred near the gates of an Afghan army base in Ghazni town 72 miles south of Kabul. It killed the bomber as well as a civilian passing on a motorbike. Also in Ghazni, rebels ambushed two police patrols, killing two officers and wounding five, including the provincial deputy police chief, said Mr Alam.

Explore World News

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Obama fears the Blair effect as tour continues
• Iranian rebel flees into exile
• Jewish guerrillas told British: quit Palestine or die