LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, 11 May 2006 — Afghan police killed three Taleban insurgents who ambushed a patrol in a southern province where British troops are overseeing security, a provincial official said yesterday. The Taleban have stepped up their campaign against foreign troops and the government in recent months with a wave of roadside and suicide bombings, attacks and assassinations. Taleban gunmen ambushed police in the Sangin district of Helmand province on Tuesday, a provincial spokesman said.
“There were no casualties among police either in the ambush or during the clash that followed,” said the spokesman, Mohiuddin. Foreign troops were not involved, he said. Britain has started deploying troops in Helmand as part of plans for the expansion of a NATO-led peacekeeping mission that will see 3,300 troops in the Afghan south.
Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay reaffirmed Canada’s commitment to Afghanistan yesterday and said Canada would remain committed until the mission was complete, even if that took longer than expected. “We recognize that it is going to take, perhaps, a longer period of time than was first envisioned,” MacKay told reporters in Kabul after talks with President Hamid Karzai.
