nytimes.com
September 4, 2003
Afghan Soldiers, Aided by U.S., Say They Routed Taliban
By CARLOTTA GALL
ALAT, Afghanistan, Sept. 4 — Dusty and sunburned government soldiers swarmed around the courtyard of the governor's office here today, claiming success after 15 days of battling the Taliban in the mountains to the north, in what has been some of the most serious fighting in Afghanistan in months.
The American-assisted operation in the mountainous district of Deh Chopan, 90 kilometers northeast of here, routed and killed several groups of Taliban fighters in several remote valleys, said Saifullah, the newly appointed commander of a division in the southern province of Zabul. The Taliban had been in the area for several months and were trying to use it as a staging point for attacks on adjoining regions, he said.
The Taliban fighters were now moving down to an area near the Pakistani border but Afghan government troops were going to pursue them and then seal the border, Mr. Saifullah said.
American special forces, who took part in the operations alongside Afghan government troops, were also seen heading south on the main highway, apparently heading back to base at Kandahar. But American military officials said the Americans would also continue their operations against Taliban militias.
"The Americans told me they had observed 80 Taliban crossing the border escaping into Pakistan," Mr. Saifullah said. Another group of Taliban had headed for a mountainous area near the border, he said.
Pakistani forces were also active on their side of the border, possibly in a coordinated operation, The Associated Press reported today. The news agency, quoting unnamed witnesses, said that at least 24 Pakistani military helicopters swooped in low over the tribal regions that border Afghanistan in a renewed hunt for fleeing Al Qaeda and Taliban.
Pakistani government officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said several of the helicopters carried "foreign" forces, an apparent reference to American troops, the news agency said.
American special forces and agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been operating in the Pakistani tribal areas for months, though under extreme secrecy to avoid aggravating tribal antipathy for the American presence in Pakistan.
The combined operations against the Taliban come after months of increasing militant activity in southern and south-eastern Afghanistan that has threatened reconstruction efforts and the success of the government of President Hamid Karzai. The government forces launched their operations after the replacement of the governors and senior security officials in the key southern provinces of Zabul and Kandahar. The operations appear to be part of a major American-led effort to stamp out the Taliban insurgency and rescue the post-war project in Afghanistan.
A senior presidential aide and a Western diplomat in Kabul, the Afghan capital, have said in recent interviews that the Taliban were using Zabul province as a staging area to move from the Pakistan border into the mountains of central-southern Afghanistan. The American military has denied this, however, saying that the Taliban would not try to hold ground for fear of being bombed.
Yet the Taliban presence has been serious enough to make the American-led coalition deploy special operations forces and ground troops of the 10th Mountain Division last Saturday in the Dai Chopan area, as well as on the border in eastern Afghanistan. The operation was still ongoing today, American military spokesman Maj. Ralf Marino told The Associated Press today at Bagram airbase, north of Kabul. One unit came under fire from two militants near Shkin, on the Pakistani border in Paktika province, he said.
One American special forces soldier has died and two have been wounded during the fighting in Dai Chopan. Mr. Saifullah, who had a force of 700 men in the region, said he lost five government soldiers in an ambush at the beginning of the operation and estimated that 80 to 90 Taliban fighters died, most of them in American air strikes.
The Afghan commanders just back from the battle today said they learned from villagers that the Taliban had been present in the area for up to five months. Mr. Saifullah said his men, accompanied by 15 to 20 United States special forces, overran five different valleys and a mountain pass where they found different groups of 20 to 30 militants.
Local villagers reported seeing Pakistani and Arabs among the fighters, Mr. Saifullah said. The Taliban would come down to the villages for food and sometimes harass the local villagers, the newly appointed governor of Zabul, Hafizullah Hasham, said in an interview in Qalat today.
"For 15 to 20 years guerrilla fighters have been using that area," said Mr. Saifullah, adding that when the Taliban fell in December 2001, they had hidden ammunition in the mountain caves. "If I was opposing the government, I would not go to neighboring countries, I would go up there," he said. "It is very mountainous."
In one village, the local people said the Taliban had made them load the bodies of some 30 dead fighters on their donkeys and horses and take them to a remote spot in the mountains where they buried the corpses. This account appears to match an American military statement that 33 Taliban fighters had been confirmed killed in one place last week.
Several injured Taliban were captured in the operations. Some were taken by the American forces, Mr. Saifullah said. Among the captured were three Pakistanis fighters, who were taken to Pakistan by F.B.I. agents, according to Jawed Ludin, a spokesman for the Afghan president. |
