A series of Taliban-linked attacks in Afghanistan this weekend
killed around 90 people, including more than 70 rebels killed in a
major clash in the south and four US soldiers, officials said.
NATO ground troops called in air and artillery support during
clashes with rebel forces of around 100 fighters in southern
Afghanistan in one of the bloodiest weekends this year, officials
said Sunday.
Most of the violence, which struck on the day Afghanistan
celebrated its independence from Britain in 1919, was in the south
where a NATO-led force took command three weeks ago in the
alliance's toughest military operation yet.
In the deadliest clash, scores of rebels attacked the town of
Panjwayi in Kandahar Province late on Saturday, sparking a
five-hour series of battles involving Afghan and NATO security
forces, officials said.
Scores of Taliban militants stormed the town, about 35
kilometers west of the main southern city of Kandahar, from three
directions and began fighting with the local police.
Reinforcements from the Afghan army and police and NATO's
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) surrounded the area
and returned the attack, a police official said.
ISAF ground forces called upon air and artillery support, the
force said in a statement.
"We have 35 Taliban bodies in Panjwayi town and 11 out of the
town," district governor Niaz Mohammad Sarhadi said. Another 25
bodies were found in nearby Sperwan village, he said.
The defence ministry said it could confirm only 60 bodies had
been found in Panjwayi town and Sperwan. An Afghan soldier and four
policemen were also killed, the security forces said.
The area is the birthplace of the Taliban movement that was
ousted from government nearly five years ago and has been joined by
Al-Qaida in a growing insurgency marked by suicide and roadside
bombings.
Panjwayi has seen major clashes that have left scores of people
dead this year with security officials saying they are determined
to root out rebel operatives.
A suicide bomb in the town's bazaar on August 3 killed 21
civilians in one of the bloodiest such attacks in the
insurgency.
Afghan officials also announced Sunday that six policemen and
four Taliban rebels were killed when militants attacked a border
police patrol in the western province of Nimroz.
Three policemen and five Taliban rebels were also wounded in a
clash on Saturday in Delaram district which has seen several
Taliban-linked attacks including against foreign nationals working
on road construction projects.
The US-led coalition that helped topple the Taliban in late 2001
announced on Saturday that four of its soldiers were killed in
other clashes that day.
Four US soldiers killed
In one a bomb struck a unit of the US-led coalition force in
hostile Pech district of the eastern province of Kunar. The rebels
then opened fire with small arms and artillery.
Three US soldiers were killed and three wounded, coalition
spokesman Colonel Thomas Collins said.
In Uruzgan, in the south, another US soldier training the
national army and an Afghan troop were killed in heavy fighting
with up to 150 insurgents. Three other US soldiers were
wounded.
The coalition, which numbers more than 20,000 mainly American
troops, transferred authority of the southern provinces to ISAF on
July 31 but still commands the east where it focuses on hunting
down insurgents.
(China Daily August 21, 2006)
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