Up to 50 Taliban killed in Afghan fighting ( 2003-08-26 09:06) (Agencies)
Up to 50 Taliban fighters were killed in a big air
and ground operation by U.S. and Afghan forces against hundreds of guerrillas
Monday in the southern province of Zabul, a spokesman for the governor said.
"The deaths were the result of heavy bombing by U.S. forces and ground
attacks by government forces," Hamdullah Watandoost told Reuters. "We have seen
40 to 50 dead bodies."
He said the Taliban fighters were killed in the Dozi area of Zabul's Dai
Chopan district and the guerrillas' main base there had been overrun.
A U.S. military statement issued from headquarters at Bagram air base just
north of Kabul said F-16 fighters and A-10 aircraft attacked enemy forces,
supporting Afghan troops and special operations soldiers on the ground.
It confirmed at least 14 suspected Taliban killed, saying that the clashes
were in Kandahar province. The statement appeared to be referring to the same
battle; Kandahar province borders Zabul to the south.
According to Juman Khan, the police chief of Dai Chopan, warplanes pounded
mountain areas where up to 600 Taliban fighters were thought to be holed up
after launching attacks on Friday and Saturday.
He said ground forces, which included about 450 Afghans and two dozen
Americans, had captured up to 40 suspects though these could include innocent
people. He said the government and Americans had not suffered any casualties.
"The rest of Taliban, I think, have fled," he said. "The bombing has just
ended because of darkness. As far as I can see, the Taliban have been defeated
totally here and we have captured their bases."
Khan described the Taliban force scattered over rugged terrain as one of the
biggest concentrations since the fundamentalist group was overthrown in a
U.S.-led campaign in late 2001.
He said it included fighters blamed for bloody attacks in Zabul and
neighboring Uruzgan province Friday and Saturday.
There had been no contact with them since Saturday, when five government
soldiers were killed in an ambush by a group of guerrillas who lost four men in
an ensuing skirmish.
SURGE IN VIOLENCE
A death toll of 50 would be the biggest single-day setback for a resurgent
Taliban movement in more than a year. In early June, government forces said they
killed 40 Taliban fighters in an operation near the Pakistani border.
Khan said the Taliban force was thought to include Mullah Dadullah, one of
the Taliban's top commanders accused of ordering the execution of a foreign Red
Cross worker this year. However, it was unclear if any senior figures were among
those killed.
The operation in Dai Chopan follows a surge in violence in the past two weeks
across Afghanistan in which more than 100 people have been killed, many in
attacks blamed on the Taliban.
A 12,500-strong U.S.-led force hunting Taliban remnants and their allies in
the al Qaeda network blamed for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United
States, has had only limited success and the whereabouts of key leaders of both
groups remain unknown.
They include Taliban leader Mullah Omar and al Qaeda's Osama bin Laden.
Afghan authorities say the Taliban have been operating in increasingly large
groups in recent weeks to attack government troops, officials and aid workers.
Taliban officials say the militia is waging a "jihad," or holy war, against
foreign troops and sees government officials and aid workers as legitimate
targets.
