Hundreds of Afghan police backed by U.S. air strikes retook control on Tuesday of a district capital in southwestern Afghanistan that was overrun by the Taliban, killing 32 guerrillas, police said. The guerrillas seized Mian Nishin, capital of the district of the same name in Kandahar province last week, capturing 30 police officers and a district chief. They executed eight policemen before announcing the release of the other 23 people. About 400 police took part in the operation to force the guerrillas out of Mian Nishin, said deputy provincial police chief Salim Khan."We chased the Taliban to an area 10 km (6 miles) north," Khan told Reuters. "We found them in a village called Murghai and as a result of the clashes there, 11 Taliban were killed and 15 suspects were arrested." Khan said another 21 guerrillas were killed by U.S. air strikes in support of the operation. He gave no details on whether there were any government casualties. Lieutenant Cindy Moore, a spokeswoman for the U.S. military, confirmed an operation involving U.S. forces was under way but said she could not give details while it was in progress.
Hundreds of people have been killed in a surge in guerrilla violence in Afghanistan in the past few months, raising security concerns for parliamentary elections to be held on Sept. 18.
TOP U.S. GENERAL VISITS
General John Abizaid, head of the U.S. military's Central Command, met Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday as part of a visit to the country. State television said security forces had captured Mullah Naqibullah Akhundzada, a Taliban commander active in Ghazni province south of Kabul. It said he was caught with six other Taliban members but did not say when. U.S. air strikes killed 15 to 20 guerrillas on Sunday in neighboring Helmand province and Afghan officials reported 21 more militant deaths in clashes later in the day.
Mian Nishin is in the north of Kandahar province, about 400 km (250 miles) southwest of the Afghan capital Kabul, and was the scene of operations by Afghan and U.S.-led forces last week in which government officials said nine guerrillas were killed.
In another incident in Kandahar province on Tuesday, a driver employed by the Afghan-U.N. election body was wounded and another man was killed when their vehicle came under attack, U.N. officials said. Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi telephoned Reuters to claim responsibility for the attack. But Terrence White, the Joint Electoral Management Body's regional spokesman, said it was unclear whether the Taliban were involved.