Afghanistan:Afghan and Nato-led troops have killed about 50 Taliban fighters and surrounded up to 250 more, close to Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar, the provincial police chief said yesterday.
Clashes also broke out in the east, west and north and insurgents massed in unusually large numbers in at least one other region in an apparent surge of violence ahead of the usual winter lull at the end of the "fighting season".
Taliban fighters moved into the Arghandab district, only 12km (eight miles) from Kandahar, last week after a pro-government tribal leader who held the area died of a heart attack leaving the northern approach to Kandahar exposed. The Afghan army and troops from the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) launched an operation this week to wrest back control of the area, local officials said.
About 50 Taliban have been killed around Arghandab since Monday and at least 25 wounded, said Kandahar police chief Sayed Agha Saqib. But about 200 to 250 Taliban insurgents remain there. "The rest of the Taliban are surrounded and they cannot escape or be reinforced," he said. Three Afghan police and one Afghan army soldier have been killed, he added.
"We think they are going forKandahar," Canadian Maj Eric Landry told a news conference in the city, de facto capital when the Taliban ruled from 1996 to 2001.
"By surrounding the district centres, they are trying to affect the governance . . . They're trying to get more freedom of movement in the Arghandab district and maybe try to get to the city," he said. - (Reuters)