British frontline commanders in Afghanistan want US special forces commandos barred from Helmand because they say the Americans' gung-ho approach is undermining the UK's hearts-and-minds campaign in the province.

A Nato spokesman admitted yesterday there had been "tensions" over differing approaches to operational doctrine, though he tried to play down the growing rift between British and American military leaders.

More than 380 Afghan civilians have been killed this year by airstrikes, many called in by US Delta Force or Green Beret teams in the volatile south.

British military sources say the Americans' instant use of overwhelming firepower when faced with even minor Taliban attacks is creating new recruits for the insurgents and wiping out any goodwill created by civil reconstruction projects.

The development in Afghanistan came on the day two British soldiers were killed in the UK forces' other major area of operation, Iraq. The soldiers, from the 1st Battalion Irish Guards, were travelling in a convoy west of Basra.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has warned the US twice this year that the growing toll of innocent civilians killed, or wounded, in bombing attacks could have dire consequences both for his fragile government and for all foreign troops.

Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, claimed yesterday during a visit to British bases in Helmand that the call for the removal of US special forces had been made by a single British officer "in the heat of battle".

He added that it had been " a personal view" not shared by the Helmand British task force commander, the government, or the Nato alliance.

Soldiers who contacted The Herald tell a different story. They claim small teams of US special forces are "gung-ho" and trigger-happy" and that their first reaction to incoming fire is to call up bombing missions without regard for civilian casualties.

One officer said: "These guys are a law unto themselves. They are locked into the shock and awe' mentality which makes the US military a war-winning machine but scores very poorly in the pacification stakes.

"Every time a bomb levels a compound containing women and children, the explosion drives the male relatives into the arms of the Taliban. It also totally reverses the small psychological gains we make in improving roads or irrigation for the locals."

A US source said: "The special forces' guys use airstrikes as flying artillery. It's their equaliser in a firefight where they're outnumbered and outgunned."