Staking out a corner of Taliban country

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Travel with us to a military base in Southern Afghanistan. It used to be controlled by the Taliban. Now US Marines hold the fort but the Taliban are on every side. The World’s Ben Gilbert spent some time with the Marines at Patrol Base Chris in Marjah (Photo: Ben Gilbert) Download MP3

• Multimedia: See Ben Gilbert’s photo slideshow from Marjah
• The surge in Afghanistan
• Infrastructure for Afghanistan offensive

Public reaction in Marjah

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
Anchor Marco Werman speaks with Norine MacDonald of the International Council on Security and Development. She’s been investigating the possibility of a backlash in Afghanistan after the recent US-led NATO offensive to clear the Taliban from the district of Marjah.

NATO causes more civilian deaths in Afghanistan

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

At least 27 civilians died in a NATO air strike in southern Afghanistan, the Afghan cabinet says. NATO said it hit a suspected insurgent convoy, but ground forces later found “a number of individuals killed and wounded”, including women and children. Civilian deaths in strikes have caused widespread resentment in Afghanistan. Matthew Bell reports. Download MP3 (Photo: POOL/AFP/Getty Images)

• BBC coverage
• Foreign forces in Afghanistan
• Afghan civilians scared by US effort to stop roadside bombs

Coalition offensive against Taliban continues

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

US, NATO and Afghan forces are now in the sixth day of their offensive against Taliban forces in Helmand Province. NATO officials say that militants battling coalition troops are running out of ammunition. An Afghan general said Taliban fighters were increasingly using civilians as “human shields.” We hear from The Washington Post’s Joshua Partlow in Kabul. Download MP3 Photo: POOL/AFP/Getty Images

• Latest BBC coverage
• The coalition offensive day-by day
• Inside the Taliban: Our four-part series

Who is Mullah Baradar?

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Ron Moreau is South East Asia correspondent for Newsweek magazine. He profiled Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar last summer and managed to communicate with him through emails. Katy Clark talks with Moreau, who is in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. Download MP3

• Moreau’s Newsweek story on Baradar
• BBC profile of Mullah Baradar

Taliban ‘forced from strongholds’

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

US Marines are making steady progress in one of the biggest NATO offensives in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001, but areas infested with roadside bombs are bogging them down, a spokesman said on Monday. On day three of Operation Moshtarak, senior Afghan officers said areas around Marjah and Nad Ali were being cleared of insurgents. The campaign aims to bring the areas back under Afghan government control. Anchor Katy Clark speaks with Rod Norland of the New York Times in Kabul. Download MP3 (Photo:Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Images)

• BBC coverage
• Pictures of the NATO offensive
• New York Times coverage

On IED patrol in Afghanistan

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3
Improvised Explosive Devices, or IED’s are now responsible for 70 % of the US troop fatalities in Afghanistan. One way the US led coalition is trying to combat them is by finding the bombs before they blow up. In part two of our series on IEDs, reporter Ben Gilbert is embedded with Task Force Thor in southern Afghanistan.

• Part one of this series

NATO prepares big offensive against Taliban

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Hundreds of villagers living in a Taliban-controled area of southern Afghanistan are leaving before a major NATO-led offensive gets under way. It is expected to be one of the largest counter-insurgency operations since the Afghan conflict began in 2001. The operation to clear insurgents from the southern town of Marjah, in Helmand province, is expected to begin soon. The BBC’s Frank Gardner is 90 miles east of Marjah in Kandahar. Download MP3

• BBC coverage
• On The World: President Obama’s Afghanistan plan
• NATO media photos from Afghanistan