Friday, November 02, 2007
HERAT: Afghan forces said Thursday they had killed 50 more Taliban militants in the heaviest fighting in a western province since the fall of the regime in 2001.
An operation by local and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) troops to retake a district in the increasingly troubled Farah province from the rebels entered its third day, Provincial Police Spokesperson Mohammad Gul Sarjang said.
The fighting still continues in Gulistan District. We killed 20 more Taliban since yesterday, the police spokesperson said. Five soldiers and seven police have also been killed so far. On Wednesday Afghan police said up to 40 Taliban militants were killed and 20 wounded.
There is fighting going on to retake the district, but I cannot confirm any casualties at this stage, Defence Ministry Spokesman Mohammad Zahir Azimi said Thursday. The Taliban dispute the casualty figures and maintain they are in control of the district.
The insurgents also attacked another district of Farah on Wednesday night, sparking a six-hour fight with security forces, Sarjang said. Taliban attacked Bakwa District last night. Thirty Taliban were killed in six hours of fighting, two police were wounded, the spokesperson said. Azimi later said the fighting had ended but he could not confirm the toll.
The figures could not be independently confirmed and the interior ministry was not immediately available for comment. Taliban militants have taken over several districts in Afghanistan for brief periods of time but have kept control of only one, Musa Qala District in southern Helmand province, which they captured almost a year ago.
Rebels attacked a police post in Helmands Nadali district Thursday, killing five policemen and wounding two others, police said. Five police are martyred and three have been wounded in the Taliban attack, Provincial Police Chief Mohammad Hussain Andiwal told AFP.
Helmand, Afghanistans biggest opium-growing region, borders Farah and hundreds of militants from the province have crossed over into Gulistan District during the current bout of fighting.
Separately police were carrying out follow-up operations in the southern district of Arghandab, close to the former Taliban base of Kandahar, where they said on Wednesday they had surrounded more than 200 militants and killed 50.
Since yesterday there has not been any direct fighting in Arghandab District, Provincial Police Chief Sayed Aqa Saqib told AFP. We are carrying out our clean-up operations. We have not faced any resistance so far.
Meanwhile, US-led coalition forces killed three civilians, including two children and a 75-year-old man, in a raid on a house in the eastern province of Nangarhar, local police said. The coalition confirmed that two children had died in the incident but said that the third person killed was a Taliban militant who barricaded himself in a room with his family.
While resisting multiple requests to surrender, the militant barricaded himself in a room. Unbeknownst to Afghan forces his family was barricaded in the room with him, the coalition said. Civilian casualties from the US-led coalition and Nato-led troops in Afghanistan have come under sharp criticism from Afghans.
Bullllll Nobody had been slaughtred atleast for NOT wearing Burqa in NWFP 
