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| Afghanistan |
| Ten Afghans and 60 Taliban killed in clashes over districts |
| 2007-06-20 |
| The Interior Ministry announced that 10 civilians and up to 60 Taliban were killed in the past few days of fighting in the Uruzgan province, but rejected claims by locals that dozens more were killed in NATO bombing raids. Meanwhile, Afghan police said on Tuesday they had reclaimed control of a district held by the Taliban for less than 24 hours but had made a “tactical withdrawal” from another the rebels claimed to hold. Local officials alleged on Monday that scores of civilians were killed in three days of fighting, including NATO bombardments, to dislodge a group of the Taliban from the Chora district in Uruzgan province. An Interior Ministry spokesman said the Taliban had killed 10 civilians and four policemen and “50 to 60 enemy elements” were also dead. He said claims that more civilians had died in bombing raids were “not true”. Uruzgan provincial council chief Mawlawi Hamdullah told AFP late on Monday that accounts from the area suggested that around 60 civilians might have been killed, most of them in bombing raids. Around 100 people were in a hospital in Tirin Kot, but there were other wounded that were unable to leave Chora, he said, adding that helicopters should be sent to airlift them out. NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said it had no reports of civilian deaths but believed around 50-60 Taliban may have been killed. “The fighting in Uruzgan still goes on,” ISAF spokesman Major John Thomas told AFP. He said he doubted Afghan officials could differentiate between civilians and militants, adding some of wounded who claimed to be civilians were insurgents. Police faced little resistance when they reclaimed the mountainous Myanishen district in the southern province of Kandahar, provincial police chief Esmatullah Alizai said. Taliban insurgents trying to overthrow the government had said they captured the district late Monday and were in control of its administrative headquarters. “There was an exchange of fire,” Alizai said. “We managed to retake control of the district. There wasn’t very heavy resistance from the enemy side.” He said his officers suffered no casualties and it was unclear if there had been any Taliban deaths. However, police had to pull out of Kandahar’s Ghorak district, the police chief said as the Taliban claimed to have also captured that area. “Today at noon we made a tactical withdrawal from Ghorak,” Alizai added. Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi had earlier told AFP the Taliban controlled the district administration offices and had taken possession of government vehicles and weapons. On Tuesday, a group representing 94 foreign and Afghan aid agencies said international and Afghan forces had been responsible for the deaths of at least 230 civilians this year. “Initial goodwill towards the international military presence in 2002 has substantially diminished in many parts of the country,” stated the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief in a statement. Meanwhile, Afghan troops killed seven suspected militants in the Sangin district of Helmand province on Monday, the Defense Ministry said. Separately, witnesses and relatives said foreign troops raided a housing complex in Kandahar late on Monday, killing one man and detaining ten others, although US-led coalition and NATO said they have no reports of such an incident. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 60 Taliban ded is way gud! |
| Posted by: Red Dawg 2007-06-20 04:21 |