Is latest massacre of Taliban futile?
Updated on 11 February 2008
There are many Taliban deaths and injuries but little apparent loss on the British side after a three-hour fire fight between the two sides.
It's very hard to determine what was achieved by the Kajaki Dam battle, territorially, morally or in terms of winning hearts and minds.
For this special report our Chief Correspondent Alex Thomson accompanied the marines up the Sangin valley to the Kajaki Dam.
It was an assault on Taliban forces dug-in amongst the hills and valleys. A mission that ended in a bloody three-hour battle.
The Kajaki Dam is the only power station in southern Afghanistan and provides electricity to 2m people.
But the turbines driven by the Kajaki dam are high in the Sangin valley - the mountainous north of Helmand province - and a Taliban stronghold.
Since 2001 six British soldiers have lost their lives in bitter, sometimes hand to hand fighting, for control of this strategically and symbolically important area. The nearest there is to a frontline in this shifting insurgency.
