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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Afghans kill 31 Taliban |
| 2005-10-04 |
| Happy Ramadan, asshats ... At least 31 militants linked to Afghanistanâs toppled Taleban regime were killed in clashes with government forces near the border with Pakistan, the defence ministry said yesterday. Afghan National Army (ANA) troops killed 28 insurgents who attacked an security post near the border in the southeastern province of Paktika late Sunday, ministry spokesman Mohammed Zaher Azimi said. The attack at the Angor Hada post sparked a clash lasting several hours. âTwenty-eight bodies of the enemy were left at the site, four ANA soldiers were wounded and one of the wounded is in critical condition,â Azimi added. The Afghan army seized two Russian-made rocket launchers and 10 rockets. A second military source said the militants had been able to cross over from Pakistan under the cover of rockets apparently fired from Pakistani territory. Another three militants were killed after they ambushed a truck transporting supplies for US-led coalition forces in the Sarobi area of the province, he said. A civilian driver was also killed. âAn ANA patrol got to the area. As a result of a heavy exchange of fire, three enemy elements were killed and two of them were arrested with two AK-47 rifles. Two ANA officers were also wounded,â Azimi said. He blamed the attacks on the âenemies of Afghanistanâ, a term often used for militants linked to the Taleban regime, which was ousted in a US-led campaign in 2001 for failing to surrender Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. In another attack on Sunday, two Afghan soldiers were wounded in a clash with suspected militants in neighbouring Zabul province, Azimi said. Yesterday the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan said Natoâs top decision-making body would visit the country this week to discuss plans to expand into the volatile south and probably the east. Isaf has been in Afghanistan since late 2001 and came under Nato control in 2003. It currently operates in the capital, the north and the west of the country with US-led forces hunting Taleban and Al Qaeda in the south and east. Meanwhile, Afghan President Hamid Karzai met yesterday French President Jacques Chirac at the start of a three-day official visit to Paris. It is the Afghan leader's first foreign visit since parliamentary elections last month in his war-shattered country, the first in more than three decades. The results are expected late this month. In an interview with the newspaper Le Figaro, Karzai said he wanted to see anti-terrorist operations take place in neighbouring countries to counter the violence which still racks Afghanistan. âMost of the terrorist acts committed in Afghanistan aren't prepared in our country. That's why we have to crack down on where they are organised,â he said. He said he was ânot accusing anyone in particular,â though he has in the past alleged Pakistan was not doing enough to stop groups based on its territory crossing over the border to launch attacks in Afghanistan. Karzai and three ministers accompanying him were also to meet French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy and Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie during talks yesterday and today. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 Daumn,sounds like the ANA has come along nicely. |
| Posted by: raptor 2005-10-04 06:41 |