KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, 18 June 2006 — Ten Taleban were killed in fresh fighting in Afghanistan, officials said yesterday, taking the rebel death toll to around 100 since a major new military operation was made public three days ago. Seven died in the southern province of Kandahar, where the Taleban rose to take control of the government in 1996, in the hours-long gunfight that erupted after rebels stormed a district government office at midnight.
Afterward, “the Taleban fled, leaving the seven bodies at the site,” Interior Ministry spokesman Yousuf Stanizai told AFP. “One police was also martyred and one was wounded in the several hours’ fighting.” Three more Taleban were killed in neighboring Helmand province late Friday when a bomb they were planting in a road exploded, provincial spokesman Muhaidin Khan told AFP. The new violence came after the coalition announced late Friday that 45 Taleban were killed in strikes in Uruzgan province that fell under Operation Mountain Thrust, the biggest drive against the rebel movement since it was toppled in late 2001.
Coalition forces killed “an estimated 40 insurgents while they were meeting at a known enemy camp,” in western Uruzgan, a statement said. The meeting included members of a cell tasked with making bombs, financiers and area leaders responsible for numerous attacks, the coalition statement said. Afghan and coalition forces also raided a Taleban compound northeast of the provincial capital Tirin Kot, killing five insurgents, it said. It announced another 40 Taleban deaths a day earlier.
As the coalition claimed new successes, it lost two US troops in eastern Kunar province when a patrol vehicle struck a bomb in the road, the coalition said. Operation Mountain Thrust includes Canadian and British forces that have been setting up in southern Afghanistan over the past few months ahead of NATO’s takeover of command of the region from the coalition due late July. The coalition revealed details of the campaign on Wednesday.
