Taliban retreating from stronghold, reports say

Taliban militants are retreating from the Afghan district of Marjah without protracted resistance, reports say.

Witnesses told a Press TV correspondent on Saturday that NATO forces were meeting only scattered resistance in the town of Marjah in the southern province of Helmand.

Early on Saturday, thousands of US-led NATO troops launched a major offensive against Marjah, which is one of the Taliban’s major strongholds in Afghanistan.

The AP news agency quoted Marjah residents as saying Taliban insurgents had fallen back into the center of the town, perhaps to try to regroup and mount harassment attacks.

Yet the Taliban say they have massed thousands of militants to fight the foreign troops in the region.

They claim they have already started launching mortars and have killed at least 25 foreign troops in the latest attacks.

However, there is no independent confirmation of the reports since journalists cannot report from the conflict zone.