65 killed in Afghan fighting
KANDAHAR: Sixty Taliban and five Afghan security forces members were killed in a new clash in Afghanistan on Wednesday as the US-led coalition defended itself against mounting criticism of civilian deaths.
The suspected insurgents were killed in a ‘fierce’ six-hour battle and subsequent clean-up operation in Uruzgan late on Tuesday, said a top Afghan general and the coalition.
The Afghan army called in coalition air support, said Afghan General Rahmatullah Raufi. Four soldiers and a policeman also died, said he and a police spokesman.
dailytimes.com
A Taliban comeback? Ahmed Rashid
Musharraf is between a rock and a hard place. A fair election would most likely result in a parliament hostile to continued army rule. A rigged election endangers his grip on power and the army’s prestige. However, military rule has run its course in Pakistan. It is deeply unpopular and no longer has the credibility to resist Islamic fundamentalists
As unprecedented Taliban violence sweeps across southern Afghanistan, four players in the region, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the US and NATO, are locked in a tense standoff rather than cooperating to defeat the terrorists. At stake is the future survival of Afghanistan’s moderate government and stability in Pakistan.
To prop up Afghanistan and combat the Taliban, the US and NATO may have to make major concessions to Pakistan’s military regime, but any concessions would anger the Afghans, encourage the extremists and allow the unpopular military to dominate Pakistan’s political scene for another five years.
Taliban grows in strength, US admits
The Taliban are growing in strength, the US military admitted yesterday as it defended 16 civilian deaths inflicted by its bombers during southern Afghanistan’s most violent week in years.
Hundreds of insurgents have taken root in three key southern provinces at the heart of the current Nato deployment, said a US spokesman, Colonel Tim Collins.
“There’s no doubt the Taliban have grown in strength and influence in certain areas in Kandahar, Helmand and in southern Uruzgan,” he said. “That’s why we are going after them.”
In the latest violence a six-hour battle erupted in mountainous Uruzgan province yesterday when a joint coalition-Afghan patrol came under rocket and small arms fire at a village near the provincial capital, Tirin Kot, according to a military statement.
After cornering the Taliban inside a compound, the coalition forces called in air support, the statement said. British, French and American planes pounded the area with bombs and rockets.
Twenty-four Taliban and five Afghan security forces were killed, according to the report, which could not be verified.
A British military plane with the newly arrived ambassador, Stephan Evans, caught fire as it landed in Helmand, where 3,300 troops are deploying. Two passengers received minor injuries.
The US defended itself against Afghan criticism of an air strike on Sunday night that killed at least 16 civilians at Azizi in western Kandahar. The military did not know civilians were in the houses when A-10 “warthog” planes fired at buildings, said Col Collins.
But Col Collins also blamed the Taliban’s use of “human shield” tactics. “The Taliban knowingly, wilfully chose to occupy homes of these people,” he said.