Taliban resistance fading in Marjah

Taliban resistance to a military offensive in the Afghan town of Marjah has begun to ease amid reports that the group's fighters are running out of ammunition. About 15,000 US, Nato and Afghan troops have been battling Taliban fighters in an attempt to take Marjah and the surrounding areas, but after a week of fighting Afghan sources said the firing had died down. Al Jazeera's James Bays, speaking from Lashkar Gah in Helmand, said that there were "only small-arms engagements taking place" on Sunday. "What we are hearing from Afghan sources is that they believe that the Taliban who have been fighting and putting up their heavy resistance in the north and east of Marjah, are running low on ammunition," he said. "The heaviest battles took place on Thursday. That's the day the Nato forces lost their largest number of troops - six killed on Thursday alone. Since then the battles seem to have died down a little. "They are still getting return fire from the Taliban, but they believe they may be running low. They say that that's because they intercepted some of the Taliban's internal radio messages calling for more ammunition."