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| Afghanistan |
| Dozens die as battle rages in Afghanistan |
| 2008-06-18 |
| Dozens, as in "mostly bad guys"... KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Two Afghan soldiers and at least 23 militants were killed Wednesday during a military operation to push out Taliban rebels from several villages in south Afghanistan, the country's defense ministry said. Afghan troops, backed by Canadian forces, targeted villages in the Arghandab district of Kandahar province, where 400 militants escaped from prison in a jailbreak Friday. Meanwhile, four British soldiers were killed Tuesday in a separate operation in Lashkar Gah, also in southern Afghanistan. And in another incident on Wednesday, two NATO-led soldiers were killed and 10 wounded during a patrol in southeastern Afghanistan. The incident occurred in the Paktika province, the alliance force said without releasing the nationalities of these troops. Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Zahir Azimi said thousands of soldiers and police officers -- with reinforcements from the capital city of Kabul -- began moving into Arghandab Wednesday morning."This clearing operation is a response to a direct Taliban threat to the people of Arghandab district, where insurgents have forced hundreds of innocent Afghans to flee their homes," a statement from NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said. "The operation is expected to be completed within the next three days." The two Afghan soldiers were killed in a gun battle with three Taliban fighters, the defense ministry said. A NATO air raid in the district killed 20 other militants, the ministry said. Even with the operation under way, NATO said it had seen no evidence of an increased Taliban presence in the region. "The scale of the challenge is currently unknown," ISAF spokesman Mark Laity said. "What we failed to find is the large grouping [of militants] that some people claimed." Laity said the reports of militants overrunning villages was Taliban "propaganda precisely to scare people." Throughout the night and into early Wednesday morning, residents reported seeing row upon row of military convoys moving into the district. As the operation got under way, planes and helicopters buzzed overhead. Local elders said hundreds of militants streamed into the villages late Sunday night on motor bikes and pickups. Then, in apparent preparation for an impending military operation, they planted mines, destroyed bridges and forced villagers to stay and fight alongside them, a tribal elder said. NATO aircraft dropped hundreds of leaflets Monday night asking residents to stay inside their homes, saying troops were "coming to remove the enemies of Afghanistan." Locals differed on the number of villages they said the Taliban had seized, with figures varying from five to 13. The villages are about 20 km (12 miles) north of Kandahar, near the prison. Kandahar province is where the Taliban first rose to power and where it made its last stand before being toppled by U.S.-led forces in late 2001. Meanwhile, the British soldiers were killed as they took part in an operation east of Lashkar Gah, the British Ministry of Defense said in a statement. The blast killed three soldiers immediately while a fourth died later, the ministry said. One of the victims served in the Intelligence Corps. A fifth soldier was wounded and is in stable condition. Prime Minister Gordon Brown mourned the loss in the House of Commons, saying he was proud of them. "They were undertaking the most difficult missions in the most dangerous of countries," he said. "Our troops are second to none, the best in the world. They're on the noblest of missions. They are fighting for freedom for the Afghans in their own country and for the world in protecting us from terrorism." Opposition Conservative Party leader David Cameron agreed. "When people ask us why we're sending our young men and women to fight and possibly die in the heat and dust of Afghainstan, let us be absolutely united in saying that their fight is our fight," he said. "This is a fight against terrorism and extremism, not just in Afghanistan, that affects the safety of our streets and our way of life, too." The explosion occurred a day after Brown announced that Britain would send more troops to Afghanistan. British troops there primarily serve in the southern province of Helmand, where allied forces are battling a resurgent Taliban. Defense Secretary Des Browne said Britain would increase its troop presence in Afghanistan from 7,800 to 8,030 by next spring. |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #3 to clarify, the brits who were killed were in Helmand province. The op outside Kandahar is a joint Afghan-Canadian op. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2008-06-18 12:21 |
| #2 Good that the bad guys died, sad that the good guys did, although the ratio is definitely in the right direction. How many of the British soldiers died because they were poorly equipped by their political masters who praise their courage from the safety of the House of Commons? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-06-18 12:19 |
| #1 Op is probably based in Forward Operating Base Frontenac |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2008-06-18 11:20 |