Grietje
18-08-03, 17:57
Hundreds of Taliban stage attack
Afghan government soldiers killed and captured
KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 18 — About 200 Taliban fighters attacked a district headquarters in southeastern Afghanistan, killing three government soldiers and capturing four, a day after militants killed six troops in the same area, police said on Monday.
SUNDAY NIGHT’S attack in Paktika province’s Terwah district was the latest in a spate of violence in the past week that has fuelled concern about an increasingly bold and resurgent Taliban movement operating in the porous Pakistan border region.
“They burnt down the building completely,” provincial police chief Dawlat Khan told Reuters. “They apparently killed three soldiers and took four others with them.”
Terwah is near Barmal, a district where officials said scores of suspected Taliban guerrillas killed at least six police troopers on Saturday before escaping into Pakistan. Officials estimate 16 guerrillas were killed in this attack.
Speaking from an undisclosed location, Taliban official Mullah Abdul Rauf told Reuters 14 government troops were killed in the Paktika fighting for the loss of up to four guerrillas and some civilians.
Some guerrillas remained in parts of Barmal while the rest were in mountain areas, he said, rejecting suggestions that they had crossed from Pakistan.
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“We withdrew from the populated areas because it was dangerous for civilians there and their property,” he said. “It’s not true that we crossed from Pakistan, because we were in an area about 16 miles from the frontier.
“We have no need for Pakistan, and the country offers no support to the Taliban,” he said.
Last week was one of the bloodiest since the Taliban was overthrown by a U.S.-led military coalition in late 2001.
At least 65 people were killed last Tuesday and Wednesday in a series of incidents, including a bomb on a passenger bus, a factional clash, fighting between government and Taliban guerrillas and an ambush on a local aid group.
PAKISTANIS ‘DO NOT STOP THEM’
Khan said the Paktika raids could not have been carried out without the support of Pakistani border forces, which “see these people moving back and forth, but do not stop them.”
Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have soured in recent months over Kabul’s accusations that Pakistan is allowing, and in some cases even aiding, Taliban guerrillas.
Pakistan, the main backer of the Taliban until the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, denies this, saying it does all it can to help the U.S.-led “war on terror.”
Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan told a briefing he did not believe the attackers had come from Pakistan, but there were large concentrations of Taliban still in Afghanistan and there could be remnants in Pakistan too.
“The Taliban pose a threat to both Pakistan and Afghanistan,” he said. “It is a common fight and we should coordinate our strategies and work together and not find refuge in accusations.”
Dawlat Khan also blamed lack of ammunition and assistance from Kabul and U.S.-led coalition forces for the setbacks. “Our forces even did not have bullets for small arms,” he said.
“The Americans destroy ammunition when they find it. The government sends us none and the soldiers receive only 800 afghanis (about $14) a month. Under such circumstances, how can these people stand up and fight? We desperately need help.”
The violence in the past week has prompted renewed calls for NATO, which took command of Kabul’s peacekeeping force a week ago, to expand it to the lawless provinces where a 12,500-strong U.S.-led coalition is hunting Taliban and al-Qaida remnants
Afghan government soldiers killed and captured
KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 18 — About 200 Taliban fighters attacked a district headquarters in southeastern Afghanistan, killing three government soldiers and capturing four, a day after militants killed six troops in the same area, police said on Monday.
SUNDAY NIGHT’S attack in Paktika province’s Terwah district was the latest in a spate of violence in the past week that has fuelled concern about an increasingly bold and resurgent Taliban movement operating in the porous Pakistan border region.
“They burnt down the building completely,” provincial police chief Dawlat Khan told Reuters. “They apparently killed three soldiers and took four others with them.”
Terwah is near Barmal, a district where officials said scores of suspected Taliban guerrillas killed at least six police troopers on Saturday before escaping into Pakistan. Officials estimate 16 guerrillas were killed in this attack.
Speaking from an undisclosed location, Taliban official Mullah Abdul Rauf told Reuters 14 government troops were killed in the Paktika fighting for the loss of up to four guerrillas and some civilians.
Some guerrillas remained in parts of Barmal while the rest were in mountain areas, he said, rejecting suggestions that they had crossed from Pakistan.
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“We withdrew from the populated areas because it was dangerous for civilians there and their property,” he said. “It’s not true that we crossed from Pakistan, because we were in an area about 16 miles from the frontier.
“We have no need for Pakistan, and the country offers no support to the Taliban,” he said.
Last week was one of the bloodiest since the Taliban was overthrown by a U.S.-led military coalition in late 2001.
At least 65 people were killed last Tuesday and Wednesday in a series of incidents, including a bomb on a passenger bus, a factional clash, fighting between government and Taliban guerrillas and an ambush on a local aid group.
PAKISTANIS ‘DO NOT STOP THEM’
Khan said the Paktika raids could not have been carried out without the support of Pakistani border forces, which “see these people moving back and forth, but do not stop them.”
Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have soured in recent months over Kabul’s accusations that Pakistan is allowing, and in some cases even aiding, Taliban guerrillas.
Pakistan, the main backer of the Taliban until the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, denies this, saying it does all it can to help the U.S.-led “war on terror.”
Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan told a briefing he did not believe the attackers had come from Pakistan, but there were large concentrations of Taliban still in Afghanistan and there could be remnants in Pakistan too.
“The Taliban pose a threat to both Pakistan and Afghanistan,” he said. “It is a common fight and we should coordinate our strategies and work together and not find refuge in accusations.”
Dawlat Khan also blamed lack of ammunition and assistance from Kabul and U.S.-led coalition forces for the setbacks. “Our forces even did not have bullets for small arms,” he said.
“The Americans destroy ammunition when they find it. The government sends us none and the soldiers receive only 800 afghanis (about $14) a month. Under such circumstances, how can these people stand up and fight? We desperately need help.”
The violence in the past week has prompted renewed calls for NATO, which took command of Kabul’s peacekeeping force a week ago, to expand it to the lawless provinces where a 12,500-strong U.S.-led coalition is hunting Taliban and al-Qaida remnants