20 Taliban Killed in Afghan Operation

By NOOR KHAN

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – An operation in southern Afghanistan involving 200 Afghan police working alongside Western troops killed 20 Taliban fighters, officials said Tuesday, in an area where the militants largely had been kept at bay in recent years.

Afghan police and NATO and coalition soldiers surrounded two villages in the Arghandab district of Kandahar province on Monday and Tuesday, killing 20 Taliban fighters and wounding 25, said provincial police chief Sayed Afgha Saqib.

It’s one of the first times large numbers of Taliban fighters have moved into the region just north of Kandahar city – the Taliban’s former power base – since the militant movement was toppled from power following the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

The clash also comes two weeks after the death of Mullah Naqibullah, a local powerbroker who had managed to keep the Taliban out of Arghandab district despite the militant movement’s resurgent strength in Afghanistan’s south.

"The Taliban are trying to run away, but we have the area surrounded," Saqib said. "We are on the offensive, and they are on the defensive."

Saqib said no police had been killed, but another government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to speak to the media, said three officers died.

Elsewhere in Kandahar province, a U.S.-led coalition soldier was killed Tuesday while conducting combat operations in Sperwan Ghar, a coalition statement said.

Saqib said eight Taliban were killed in that fight. Six Taliban also were killed in Zhari district after an ambush attempt on police.

In western Afghanistan, in Farah province, 20 Taliban fighters were killed and wounded, including three commanders, said provincial police chief Gen. Abdul Rahman Sarjang. He said civilians had joined in the fighting on the police side, but that seven of them were killed.

Sarjang claimed some 300 Taliban have gathered in the area, and that police were sending reinforcements.

In the east, a roadside blast killed the intelligence chief of Qarghayi district in Laghman province as he was traveling in his car, said Nezamuddin, a spokesman for Laghman’s governor who goes by only one name. The vehicle was destroyed and three of his bodyguards killed.

Violence in Afghanistan this year is the deadliest since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. More than 5,300 people have died this year due to insurgency-related violence, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and Western officials.