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Afghan forces kill 30 Taliban
03/07/2007 16:06 - (SA)
Kandahar - Afghan and Western forces killed dozens of rebel fighters in the Taliban heartland of southern Afghanistan officials said on Tuesday, striking back after they came under attack.
Thirty-three Taliban were killed in Kandahar province on Monday in an operation launched hours after a remotely detonated bomb tore through a police vehicle and killed seven policemen, the provincial governor said.
Three more rebels were wounded and one was arrested, provincial governor Asadullah Khalid told reporters of the sweep in Zhari district, about 30km west of Kandahar city.
He said the Afghan National Army (ANA) and police were backed by the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force.
The ISAF media office did not immediately have details of the incident but said its troops had been involved in a separate battle in the province on Tuesday that killed several more rebels.
"Insurgents attacked friendly forces with RPG (rocket-propelled grenades) and small-arms fire," ISAF spokesperson Major John Thomas said. "Aircraft were called in to assist. ANA also moved to assist."
An ISAF soldier was wounded in the attack, Thomas said. He was not able to say how many insurgents were killed.
Rebels backed by 'jihadists'
The ultra-conservative Taliban movement, allied with al-Qaeda, took up arms in Kandahar in the early 1990s and had seized power by 1996. They were driven out in an invasion led by the United States in late 2001.
The area, and neighbouring Helmand province, sees some of the worst fighting in the insurgency which has grown steadily with the Afghan rebels said to be backed by foreign "jihadists".
Security forces killed more than 1 500 insurgents across Afghanistan in about three months from March, the interior ministry said last month.
The violence is also taking a toll on civilians, who are caught up in Taliban attacks or security force raids on militants.
About 600 civilians are estimated to have been killed this year, about half by security forces and half by the rebels.
- AFP
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