Ministers were forced on to the defensive over Britain's military deployment to Afghanistan, after intense fighting in the country yesterday followed the deaths of 14 service personnel when a Nato aircraft crashed on Saturday.

More than 200 Taliban fighters and four Canadian soldiers were killed in a big offensive by Afghan and Nato forces that began this weekend, Nato said yesterday. The RAF Nimrod MR2 was providing support for the operation, codenamed Medusa, near the city of Kandahar.