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| Afghanistan |
| Afghan police: 30 Taliban killed in clashes - Really, trust us |
| 2009-03-31 |
| KABUL (AP) — Afghan and foreign troops killed 30 Taliban fighters and wounded 17 others during a series of clashes in southern Afghanistan, while a roadside bomb Tuesday killed the mayor of an eastern capital, officials said. The joint forces continued to battle with the militants in Dehrawood district of Uruzgan province Tuesday, following overnight clashes when the militants were killed, said Uruzgan's police chief Juma Gul Himat. Himat's account was impossible to verify independently. Afghan authorities are know to exaggerate their battlefield success. Southern Afghanistan is the center of the Taliban-led insurgency. Thousands of new U.S. forces will deploy to that region in an attempt to reverse recent Taliban gains following what appeared to be their initial defeat after the U.S. invasion in 2001. In the eastern Khost province, meanwhile, a roadside bomb Tuesday killed the mayor of the provincial capital and seriously wounded his driver, said Tahir Khan Sabari, the deputy provincial governor. The mayor of Khost city, Sahki Mirullah, was on his way home from his office when the explosion ripped through his vehicle, Sabari said. Militants regularly use roadside bombs in their attacks against Afghan and foreign troops in the country. The number of such attacks rose by 30 percent last year, according to NATO figures. The latest violence came as more than 80 of Afghanistan's neighboring states or military and financial donors attended a one-day conference in The Hague, Netherlands, to brainstorm on how to stabilize the country seven years after the expulsion of the Taliban government. Afghan President Hamid Karzai and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Afghanistan would welcome Taliban fighters who reject al-Qaida, embrace peace and pledge to abide by the constitution. Clinton told the conference that most of the Taliban fighters have allied with anti-government forces "out of desperation" rather than commitment, in a country that has barely made inroads against poverty and lack of development. |
| Posted by:GolfBravoUSMC |