KABUL, 18 September 2006 — NATO and Afghan government troops have forced Taleban insurgents out of a southern Afghan district after a two-week operation in which NATO said hundreds of militants were killed. The Taleban and their militant allies have unleashed a wave of attacks on government and foreign troops this year. Security forces have responded with a series of offensives in the south and east.
The British commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. David Richards, said yesterday the offensive codenamed Operation Medusa had cleared well dug-in Taleban forces from a farming district about 25 km west of the southern city of Kandahar. “This has been a significant success and clearly shows the capability that Afghan, NATO and coalition forces have when they operate together,” Richards told a news conference in Kabul.
The level of violence in Afghanistan - the most intense since the Taleban were ousted five years ago — has surprised the government and its Western allies and raised concern about the prospects for a country that had been seen as a success in the US-led war on terrorism. About 130 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan this year, most of them Americans, British and Canadians.
NATO said more than 400 insurgents had been killed in Operation Medusa, the alliance’s biggest ground offensive against an increasingly active Taleban.
The Taleban denied suffering such heavy losses. Five Canadian soldiers were killed in the fighting that centered on the Panjwai district and 14 British troops were killed when their aircraft crashed early in the offensive. NATO commands about 20,000 troops in Afghanistan, in the north, west and south. The United States has a similar number in a separate coalition force, in central and eastern provinces.
Richards said the Taleban would not be allowed to regroup in Panjwai, and villagers displaced by the fighting would soon be returning home and vital development work would begin. “They were exerting a mental vice on the people of Kandahar and that had to be lifted. And that area is going to be secured, this time we’re not leaving,” he said. “Then we will be doing the same activity in other provinces, all on our terms not on the Taleban’s terms.”
In the face of a much more aggressive Taleban than expected, NATO has been appealing for member states to contribute another 2,500 troops to the Afghan force. Richards declined to comment on the request but said he would have enough to succeed, whether that took another six months or three years. “I’m very confident ... that we do have enough to make a real difference here this autumn, setting conditions for a much better 2007,” he said.
