50 Taleban die in US-led strikes
SAYED SALAHUDDIN IN KABUL
thescotsman.co.uk
UP TO 50 Taleban fighters were killed yesterday in an air and ground operation by United States and Afghan forces against hundreds of guerrillas in the southern province of Zabul, Afghan officials said.
"The deaths were the result of heavy bombing by US forces and ground attacks by government forces," the provincial governor, Hamdullah Watandoost said. "We have seen 40 to 50 dead bodies." A main Taleban guerrilla base was over-run, he said.
"Our mopping-up operation continues and we have besieged the entire Taleban force who have no way to escape," he said.
Juman Khan, a local police chief, said US planes had pounded mountain areas where up to 600 Taleban fighters were believed to be cornered after launching weekend attacks. Ground forces including about 450 Afghans and two dozen Americans, had captured up to 40 suspects and suffered no casualties.
"The rest of Taleban, I think, have fled," he said. As far as I can see, the Taleban have been defeated totally here and we have captured their bases."
Mr Khan described the Taleban force as one of the biggest concentrations since Afghanistan’s Taleban government was overthrown in late 2001.
A death toll of 50 would be the biggest single-day setback for a resurgent Taleban movement in more than a year. In early June, government forces claimed to have killed 40 fighters near the Pakistan border.
The Taleban force was thought to include Mullah Dadullah, one of the top commanders accused of ordering the execution of a foreign Red Cross worker this year. It was unclear if any senior figures were among those killed.
The operation follows a surge in violence in the past two weeks across Afghanistan in which more than 100 people have been killed, many in attacks blamed on the Taleban.
Afghan authorities say the Taleban has been operating in increasingly large groups to attack government troops, officials and aid workers. |
