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| Afghanistan |
| Attack on Taliban base kills 41 |
| 2006-04-15 |
AFGHAN forces and coalition helicopter gunships attacked a suspected Taliban hide-out in southern Afghanistan, triggering a fierce battle that killed 41 militants, a provincial governor said overnight. Six Afghan policemen were also killed, but there were no casualties among the US-led forces in Friday's battle in the Zare Dasht district of Kandahar province, Kandahar Governor Assadullah Khalid said. A number of militants' bodies had been recovered, he said. A senior provincial official who declined to be named said government forces suffered high casualties as several rockets mistakenly hit them. Taliban forces have stepped up attacks on Afghan and coalition forces since announcing last month they had launched a spring offensive. A Taliban spokesman, Qari Mohammad Yousuf, put Taliban deaths at only three and said there were "high casualties among Afghan and foreign forces." Four civilians were also killed, residents said. Khalid, the Kandahar governor, said some of the heaviest fighting in weeks erupted after Afghan and coalition forces came under attack during a search operation for Taliban hiding in the area. Separately, Taliban gunmen killed a district chief and three policemen in neighbouring Helmand province in an ambush on Saturday, deputy provincial governor Amir Mohammad said. The Taliban spokesman said seven policemen were killed in that ambush, but Mohammad denied that. Afghan and coalition forces killed three insurgents on Saturday in the Chora district of Uruzgan Province after coming under fire from five attackers with small-arms and rocked-propelled grenades, the US military said. No Afghan or coalition forces were hurt, said the military, which released no further details. In the same province on Friday, US-led troops and Afghan soldiers killed two insurgents and captured two, who the US military said had been recruiting suicide bombers. Also on Friday, US-led forces killed six Taliban in an air strike in eastern Afghanistan. A blast elsewhere killed three policemen, while two British troops from the NATO-led peacekeeping mission were wounded in a suicide attack in Helmand. Despite the increased fighting, the US army plans to cut its 19,000-strong force in Afghanistan to 16,500 this year. Thousands of NATO-led troops from Britain, Canada and the Netherlands are due to deploy in the south where the militants are mostly active. US-led troops overthrew the Taliban government in Kabul after its leaders refused to hand over al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, architect of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. |
| Posted by:tipper |