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| Afghanistan |
| 19 killed in Afghan fighting |
| 2006-02-06 |
| Militants attacked government offices and a police convoy Saturday, continuing a series of assaults that have left at least 41 people dead in the southern region over two days, government officials said. About 250 Afghan forces fought more than 200 rebels in some of the area�s fiercest fighting in months. At least 19 people were killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan Saturday. Fighting began Friday with a mountain ambush on a police convoy that left 16 militants and six policemen dead and scores wounded, said Amir Mohammed Akhund, the deputy governor of Helmand province, which borders Pakistan. The violence spread across the border as a roadside bomb exploded by an army vehicle Saturday in a northwestern tribal region of Pakistan, killing three Pakistani security personnel, an official said. No one immediately asserted responsibility, but security officials pointed to militants linked to al Qaeda in previous attacks in the area, where Pakistan has sent thousands of troops to flush out insurgents. Afghan officials said U.S. forces joined the battle Friday and Saturday, but a U.S. military spokesman said he could confirm involvement only in the first day of fighting. American and British warplanes bombed suspected Taliban militants fleeing the fighting around midnight Friday, killing eight of them, said Khan Mohammed, a police chief in Helmand province. The fighting prompted dozens of families to flee their villages, he said. A group of militants who escaped from the initial clash attacked a government office early Saturday, killing the government chief and wounding four police officers, said Akhund, the deputy governor. Later in the day, another group of militants attacked the main government office in a neighboring district, setting off a two-hour gun battle that left one policeman and three suspected Taliban fighters dead, he said. Militants used a remote-controlled bomb to attack a police convoy in Kandahar, the main city in southern Afghanistan and a former Taliban stronghold, said Sher Mohammed, a police officer. A woman and a child who were walking in the area were killed, and three other passersby were wounded, he added. Also in Kandahar, a Taliban commander, Abdul Samad, was killed by border forces as he tried to enter illegally from neighboring Pakistan, said Asadullah Khalid, the governor of Kandahar. Ten other militants fled back across the frontier. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 anymouse, the problem is that the learning method is one-time only, with no possibility of passing on the lesson to others. ;-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-02-06 17:15 |
| #1 Tali-whackers are going to learn that running from IR sensors at night in an unpopulated Afghanistan is a losing proposition. Well I hope they don't learn. :) |
| Posted by: anymouse 2006-02-06 10:00 |