British troops had secured their "key objectives" in the first day of the assault but thousands of US troops supported by Afghan soldiers were continuing their attack on Marjah and surrounding areas, a spokesman said.

Overall, NATO commanders were satisfied with the launch of Operation Mushtarak, a ground assault involving thousands of troops supported by air attacks, Major General Gordon Messenger told journalists in London.

One British soldier was killed in the assault on Saturday after he was caught in an explosion during a vehicle patrol of the Nad-e-Ali district of Helmand Province, the Ministry of Defence said.

British troops had taken control of areas in the Chah-e Anjir Triangle northeast of Marjah with "minimal interference" from the Taliban, Messenger said.

There had been some "sporadic fighting", but the Taliban appeared to be "confused and disjointed" and "have not been able to put up a coherent response", he added.

"The key objectives have been secured and have been done so with minimal interference," he added.

The spokesman said that while he personally had been briefed by British commanders, their US counterparts were also satisfied with the start of the operation.

Operation Mushtarak (meaning "together" in Dari), involving a total of 15,000 NATO and Afghan troops, aims to clear Marjah and surrounding areas of Taliban and re-establish the rule of the Afghan government.

US, British and Afghan troops along with soldiers from Denmark and Estonia launched the attack on the area.

The assault was supported by the "full array" of NATO aircraft, but bombing from the air was being kept to a minimum, Messenger said.

More than 1,000 British troops were involved in their part of the operation focusing on the Chah-e Anjir Triangle, said Messenger, the chief of the defence staff's strategic communications officer.

"Low numbers" of insurgents were killed during the assault, he added.

The commander of Afghan troops in the operation has said at least 20 Taliban fighters have died.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid tribute to the "sacrifice" of the dead British soldier, whose loss brings the British death toll in the Afghanistan war to 258.

"Every death in Afghanistan is a tragedy and the prime minister's thoughts are with his family," the spokesman said.

Brown had been in close contact with military commanders throughout the first day of the operation and had also spoken to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the spokesman added.

The operation was "a vital part of creating a more secure Afghanistan -- and therefore a more secure Britain," he said.

At the briefing, Messenger said troops had faced sniper fire and IEDs, or improvised explosive devices -- the roadside bombs which the Taliban uses against NATO forces -- had been found.

Despite reports that local residents had fled the area ahead of the assault, "significant numbers" of people remained there, the spokesman said.

He stressed that while the initial stage of the attacks had gone well, the hard part of the operation would be the work to secure the area and win over the local population.

"There's no complacency -- everyone understands this is the easy bit. The hard bit is what comes next in reassuring the public," he said.

"This is all about winning the allegiance of the population. The allegiance is not won in a day, it must be won over time. It cannot be forced."

Five foreign soldiers die in southern Afghanistan: NATO
Kabul (AFP) Feb 13, 2010 - Five foreign soldiers died in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, NATO said, announcing two more deaths as thousands of Western troops led an assault on a Taliban stronghold in the region.

In a brief statement NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) did not identify the nationalities of two of the dead soldiers or make it clear if their deaths were during the assault on Marjah, in the south's Helmand province.

"An ISAF servicemember died in an IED strike in southern Afghanistan today," it said, referring to improvised explosive devices, which exact a huge toll on troops fighting insurgents in Afghanistan.

"Another ISAF servicemember died from small-arms fire in southern Afghanistan today," the statement added.

ISAF earlier reported that three US soldiers had died Saturday in an IED attack in southern Afghanistan, but again did not say if it was in the Marjah operation.

The deaths bring to 71 the total number of foreign soldiers to die in Afghanistan so far this year, according to an AFP tally based on that kept by the icasualties.org website, following a record 520 for 2009.

The vast majority have been killed by IEDs, which are planted by roadsides, can be detonated from up to two kilometres (one mile) away and pack up to 2,000 pounds of explosives, experts have said.

An Afghan army officer in Kandahar city, capital of Kandahar province, said earlier a suicide bomber had killed one Western soldier when he detonated an explosives-laden motorcycle near a military patrol.

ISAF could not confirm the reported death but said it was aware of the explosion and was investigating.

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