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| Afghanistan |
| 12 Taliban killed in Afghanistan |
| 2009-06-01 |
| Troops killed 12 Taliban linked to a battle with US troops earlier this month, officials said, while Afghan presidential hopeful Abdullah Abdullah said he will revise Afghanistan's constitution to install a prime minister and boost the powers of parliament if he wins elections in August. Afghan and US forces late on Saturday raided a group of Taliban said to have gathered to plan an attack in Afghanistan's southwestern province of Farah, Farah Deputy Governor Mohammad Younus Rasoli said. "Afghan soldiers and US Special Forces surrounded them to arrest them. The Taliban fought back but all of the 12, including their commander, were killed," Rasoli said. The Afghan government said 140 civilians, many of them children, were killed in the US airstrikes. The US military acknowledged that 20 to 30 civilians might have died in the fighting along with 60 to 65 Taliban. A spokesman for the Afghan military in western Afghanistan, Basir Khan Ghori, said the targeted group was involved in the battle in Bala Buluk. Government figures for those killed and wounded in the Bala Buluk strikes makes it one of the deadliest incidents for civilians since international troops invaded Afghanistan in late 2001 to remove the Taliban for sheltering Al Qaeda. Rasoli said troops would continue operating to secure the area ahead of the August 20 elections. Meanwhile, in Bala Buluk, the Taliban attacked a police post and killed six policemen, Abdul Rauf Ahmadi, spokesman for the western police told AFP. Two others were missing and there were also Taliban casualties but authorities did not have a figure, Ahmadi said. Meanwhile, Abdullah, who was running against President Hamid Karzai in next month's elections, said the political system was ripe for a complete overhaul. His position as clear frontrunner before the August 20 vote was further boosted on Sunday when two key opposition groups pledged to back him. The current system concentrated power in the office of the president, and because parliament was relatively weak, there were few avenues to challenge corrupt or incompetent officials, he told Reuters in an interview. "The highly centralised system is not accountable to the people ... so what we are opting and hoping for is to change the constitution and go for a parliamentary system," Abdullah said. Asked if this meant he would endorse the creation of a prime minister if he won the presidency, Abdullah said, "Yes...a prime ministerial system." "The people are stuck with governors who are being moved from one province to another when they fail and then to the next and finally if there are no more excuses to keep them as governors, they will be promoted as minister-advisers," he added. US authorities have urged Karzai to create a new executive post to help improve day-to-day governance in Afghanistan, but the president "has made no decision on it", his chief spokesman Humayoun Hamidzada said earlier this month. Defections have left the opposition in disarray as the election, once seen as wide-open, approaches. US criticism of Karzai's government also appears to have been muted and Karzai was now clearly ahead. But Abdullah, who was the Afghan foreign minister from 2001 to 2004, and was running on an independent ticket, dismissed rumours that he would also pull out of the race to endorse Karzai. |
| Posted by:Fred |