/ 31 October 2007

Fifty Taliban killed, say Afghan police

Afghan and Nato forces have killed 50 Taliban rebels in three days of clashes and surrounded 200 others who occupied civilian homes in southern Afghanistan, police said on Wednesday.

Civilians were fleeing on motorbikes, tractors, cars and animals piled with their belongings amid the fighting in three villages in Arghandab district, just outside Kandahar, provincial police chief Sayed Aqa Saqib said.

”Fifty Taliban have been killed, about 50 have been wounded and 12 Taliban, including two wounded, have been arrested so far,” Saqib said, adding that authorities did not have the bodies of the rebel fighters.

The police chief gave a toll of 20 dead Taliban late on Tuesday.

He said up to 200 militants have also been ringed by the Afghan and international troops, who are battling a fierce insurgency by the Taliban, whose Islamist regime was ousted in late 2001 by a United States-led invasion.

”They are using civilian homes as shelters. We are carrying out our operations very carefully so as not to harm civilians. Dozens of families have fled their homes to reach safety,” he added.

Officials said on Tuesday that Afghan and Nato forces had launched a ”clean up” operation in Arghandab district to clear the area of Taliban rebels, but there was no immediate comment from Nato.

The figures were impossible to verify independently.

Taliban spokesperson Yousuf Ahmadi said on Tuesday that the rebels had captured Arghandab district. The claim has been denied by Nato and Afghan forces. — AFP

 

AFP