KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, 3 October 2003 — At least 17 people have been killed in clashes involving Afghan government soldiers, Taleban guerrillas and US-led forces in southern Afghanistan, officials said yesterday. Ten government soldiers and two children were killed on Wednesday night when 16 Taleban guerrillas in two vehicles attacked a vehicle carrying the soldiers in the Nish area, some 60 km north of Kandahar, Gen. Atta Mohammad, a government commander in the town, told Reuters.
He said one Taleban fighter was killed and one wounded in the clash in which one of their vehicles was burned. Mohammad said Afghan troops and 12 soldiers from the US-led force were pursuing the attackers and two suspects had been detained.
Another official said at least four suspected Taleban guerrillas were killed in the Nish area on Wednesday when helicopter gunships from the US-led force fired at their vehicle.
The official from the local branch of the Foreign Ministry in Spin Boldak, a town close to the Pakistani border, said the guerrillas had been returning from neighboring Uruzgan province a day after clashes with Afghan troops there. However, a spokesman for the US military, Col. Rodney Davis, said he could not confirm an attack involving a US helicopter.
More than 300 people have been killed in violence in Afghanistan since early August, the bloodiest period since the fall of the Taleban late in 2001. The casualties include Afghan civilians, aid workers and soldiers as well as many suspected militants.
Two Canadian peacekeepers were killed and three wounded in a land mine blast in the capital Kabul yesterday, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force said. But Canada said the deaths would not deter it from staying in the 5,500-strong NATO-led force, responsible for ensuring security in Kabul, and patrols resumed soon afterwards.
The incident marked Canada’s first casualties since sending troops in August to join the force, in which it has the largest contingent. It is also the worst incident involving ISAF troops since four German soldiers were killed and 31 wounded in a suicide car bomb attack on their bus in early June.
Maj. Kevin Arata, an ISAF spokesman in Kabul, told Reuters the soldiers were on a regular patrol when one of two vehicles in the convoy hit the mine yesterday afternoon. “Let me be clear on one thing - this tragedy will in no way lessen our commitment to the mission,” Canadian Defense Minister John McCallum said in Ottawa.
“The mission in Afghanistan is fundamental to Canada’s security. Even though it is not immediately evident, when our soldiers patrol the streets of Kabul, they are also keeping the streets of Canada safe.”
Kabul state media reported late yesterday that Afghan security forces arrested five people in the capital who had trained outside the country and were preparing to carry out “terrorist” attacks.
Maj. Gen. Andrew Leslie, commander of the 1,900 Canadian soldiers in the Afghanistan mission, summoned the peacekeepers to tell them there was a price to be paid in their fight. “If it weren’t dangerous, they (the Afghans) wouldn’t need us,” he told reporters in Ottawa by phone. “The Taleban and Al-Qaeda want us to retreat to our camps or run away, and neither, of course, is an option for our soldiers.”
Meanwhile, elusive Taleban supreme leader Mulla Omar has appointed the brother of a slain Taleban commander to spearhead guerrilla activities in southern Afghanistan, a Taleban official said yesterday. Omar approved Mulla Wakil Ahmed as the Taleban military commander for southern Afghanistan late on Wednesday, said Mulla Sabir, alias Momin, a senior Taleban official in the region.
