Families are fleeing their homes in southern Afghanistan as foreign and Afghan forces prepare to drive out Taliban insurgents.
About 600 Taliban insurgents took over several villages in Arghandab district in the south yesterday.
It came days after they freed hundreds of prisoners, including about 400 militants, in an attack on the main jail in Kandahar city.
Ahmad Wali Karzai, the head of Kandahar's provincial council and a brother of President Hamid Karzai, said about 600 Taliban had positioned themselves in Arghandab district, which lies 20km to the north of Kandahar city, one of Afghanistan's largest cities.
It is not known if the militants included the 400 set free in the jailbreak.
The development has prompted NATO and Afghan forces to deploy troops to seal off the area to drive the militants from the district, which has an estimated population of 150,000.
NATO troops have dropped leaflets by air warning people to leave the district.
The defence ministry said several hundred soldiers would be sent from Kabul by air to Kandahar ahead of the operation. They put the total number of Afghan forces on the ground to several thousand.
Some 300 families are said to have left their homes so far.
Afghan troops are said to be stationed in many parts of Kandahar city, the birthplace of the Taliban who US-led troops drove from power in 2001.
The capture of the villages is part of the latest show of power by the militants in Afghanistan, which is suffering its worst spell of violence since 2001.
The flare-up comes despite the presence of more than 60,000 foreign forces under the command of the US military and NATO, as well as about 150,000 Afghan forces.
British Defence Secretary Des Browne yesterday told parliament the government would increase its force in Afghanistan by 230. That will bring the total number of British troops there to more than 8,000.
