The issue of civilian deaths in Afghanistan is itself becoming a “battleground” with truth often a casualty, showing the difficulty of establishing facts in a war fought in often remote areas.

Taliban guerrillas killed three policemen in an ambush on a convoy of U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan on Wednesday, a provincial official said.

The head of US forces in Iraq, General David Petraeus, has told the BBC that fighting the insurgency is a “long term endeavour” which could take decades.