KABUL, 1 June 2008 — Afghan authorities said yesterday they have killed more than 100 Taleban-linked militants in an operation to retake a remote district from the rebels in southwestern Afghanistan. The rebels were killed during two days of operations by Afghan security forces and their international allies in Bakwa, a remote district in the southwestern province of Farah, which was captured eight months ago, they said.
“During two days of operations more than 100 enemies of peace and stability were killed,” Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told AFP, adding that the district was recaptured from the rebels on Friday. “We captured the district after eight months of enemy control,” the spokesman said. Security forces were still chasing the rebels in the district, he added.
He said five “prominent” Taleban commanders were among the dead.
The Taleban, the main militant group behind a spiraling insurgency, have taken control of remote towns and districts but have been easily pushed back by Afghan and foreign security forces.
Farah, which borders Iran, has seen some of the bloodiest violence in a two-year insurgency, which has mainly taken place in the country’s south and east.
The rebels stormed and captured a district center in the central province of Ghazni on Thursday and were pushed back by Afghan security forces a day later, according to authorities.
The rebels, removed from power in a US-led invasion in late 2001, have stepped up attacks in recent months, including a campaign of suicide and roadside bombings.
Afghan forces also retook the control of Rashidan district in southern Ghazni province on Friday after the Taleban militants swept through the district, taking hostage the district governor and eight police officers. Taleban stormed Rashidan district on late Thursday night and then fled the area after burning governmental buildings and vehicles.
A suicide car bomber killed one foreign soldier and wounded six other people, including three civilians, in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar yesterday, the provincial governor said.
The Taleban have vowed to step up their campaign of suicide bombings this year, after carrying out 140 such attacks in 2007, which killed 200 civilians.
The suicide car bomber rammed his car into a moving military convoy in the city of Jalalabad before detonating explosives, Gol Agha Shirzai, governor of Nangarhar province, said.
One coalition soldier was killed and three wounded, he said. Three civilians were also wounded in the attack. The nationalities of the dead and wounded soldiers are not known but most stationed in Nangarhar are American.
The Al-Qaeda-backed Taleban largely rely on suicide attacks and roadside bomb blasts as part of their insurgency against the pro-Western Afghan government and the more than 60,000 foreign troops in the country.
Also yesterday, a senior member of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) was kidnapped along with three companions by Taleban fighters in Wardak province, west of Kabul, a local government official said. A spokesman for the Taleban, Zabihullah Mujahid, confirmed they were holding the four men. The NRC was established by the government to persuade militants to lay down their arms and join peace efforts.
