Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
June 19, 2008 By Taimoor Shah and Carlotta Gall
ARGHANDAB, Afghanistan — Using helicopter gunships, NATO and Afghan forces battled Taliban insurgents on Wednesday in this strategic district just a few miles north of the city of Kandahar.
The fighting left 2 Afghan soldiers and about 23 Taliban fighters, including two commanders, dead, the Afghan Defense Ministry said. Three Afghan soldiers were also wounded, the provincial governor said.
The operation, which comes less than a week after a jailbreak freed hundreds of Taliban fighters in Kandahar, aims to clear out Taliban insurgents who have swarmed into the northwestern part of Arghandab since Monday, causing villagers to flee and threatening the government’s control of the area.
The Arghandab district is the traditional gateway to Kandahar, the capital of southern Afghanistan, and is critical to the security of the city.
Helicopters flying high over the Arghandab River Valley fired rockets at Taliban positions a mile or so west of the river, indicating that insurgents were much closer to the district center than NATO and Afghan officials had previously acknowledged.
More helicopters flew in low up the valley, and others landed at the heavily guarded district center. The shops in the bazaar were closed, and the streets were heavily guarded by soldiers of the Afghan National Army. NATO armored vehicles were moving throughout the area.
After the initial fighting, NATO and Afghan officials said they were upbeat and expected the operation to take only a few days.
The Taliban “do not appear to have the foothold that they have apparently claimed,” Lt. Col. Dave Corbould, commanding officer of the Canadian battle group in Kandahar, said in a statement issued by the NATO force.
The Taliban were already on the defensive and would not resist much longer, the governor of Kandahar Province, Asadullah Khaled, said at a news conference in Kandahar on Wednesday evening. “We are taking many precautions not to hurt civilians, and that’s why the operation is slow,” he said.
After airstrikes on two villages, Kohak and Nagan, the bodies of 16 Taliban, including Pakistani fighters and foreign Arab fighters, were found, the Afghan Defense Ministry said in one of several statements released during the day. In the southern part of Arghandab, three Taliban were killed, including a commander named Mullah Abdul Shokor, the ministry said.
Farmers trying to bring in the wheat harvest in this fertile valley said they had been ordered out of their fields by Afghan troops.
One farmer, Abdul Khaliq, said he was harvesting wheat by hand in his fields with several laborers when Afghan forces advanced and fighting broke out.
Mr. Khaliq said that he had evacuated his family to the city the previous day but that he had returned to his village, Tabin, because the wheat was ripe.
“What can we do,” he said. “I am very worried about my wheat harvest. If fighting is prolonged, we will lose the harvest.”
Ahmed Wali Karzai, head of the Kandahar provincial council, said thousands of families had fled the Arghandab district for the city in the last few days. The council was drawing up lists and would provide the families with assistance, he said.
Other casualties around the country indicated the rising level of Taliban attacks across the south and southeast.
Mr. Khaled, the governor of Kandahar Province, said that troops also clashed with Taliban fighters in the district of Maiwand, and that families had been displaced there as well.
The British Defense Ministry reported that four more British soldiers had been killed in another part of southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, bringing the total deaths since 2001 to 106 just days after Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that he was sending extra forces.
NATO also reported that two more soldiers of its force in Afghanistan, the International Security Assistance Force, were killed in the southeastern province of Paktika, and that 10 others were wounded while on patrol.
Taimoor Shah reported from Arghandab, and Carlotta Gall from Islamabad, Pakistan. Abdul Waheed Wafa and Sangar Rahimi contributed reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan.
June 19, 2008 By Taimoor Shah and Carlotta Gall
ARGHANDAB, Afghanistan — Using helicopter gunships, NATO and Afghan forces battled Taliban insurgents on Wednesday in this strategic district just a few miles north of the city of Kandahar.
The fighting left 2 Afghan soldiers and about 23 Taliban fighters, including two commanders, dead, the Afghan Defense Ministry said. Three Afghan soldiers were also wounded, the provincial governor said.
The operation, which comes less than a week after a jailbreak freed hundreds of Taliban fighters in Kandahar, aims to clear out Taliban insurgents who have swarmed into the northwestern part of Arghandab since Monday, causing villagers to flee and threatening the government’s control of the area.
The Arghandab district is the traditional gateway to Kandahar, the capital of southern Afghanistan, and is critical to the security of the city.
Helicopters flying high over the Arghandab River Valley fired rockets at Taliban positions a mile or so west of the river, indicating that insurgents were much closer to the district center than NATO and Afghan officials had previously acknowledged.
More helicopters flew in low up the valley, and others landed at the heavily guarded district center. The shops in the bazaar were closed, and the streets were heavily guarded by soldiers of the Afghan National Army. NATO armored vehicles were moving throughout the area.
After the initial fighting, NATO and Afghan officials said they were upbeat and expected the operation to take only a few days.
The Taliban “do not appear to have the foothold that they have apparently claimed,” Lt. Col. Dave Corbould, commanding officer of the Canadian battle group in Kandahar, said in a statement issued by the NATO force.
The Taliban were already on the defensive and would not resist much longer, the governor of Kandahar Province, Asadullah Khaled, said at a news conference in Kandahar on Wednesday evening. “We are taking many precautions not to hurt civilians, and that’s why the operation is slow,” he said.
After airstrikes on two villages, Kohak and Nagan, the bodies of 16 Taliban, including Pakistani fighters and foreign Arab fighters, were found, the Afghan Defense Ministry said in one of several statements released during the day. In the southern part of Arghandab, three Taliban were killed, including a commander named Mullah Abdul Shokor, the ministry said.
Farmers trying to bring in the wheat harvest in this fertile valley said they had been ordered out of their fields by Afghan troops.
One farmer, Abdul Khaliq, said he was harvesting wheat by hand in his fields with several laborers when Afghan forces advanced and fighting broke out.
Mr. Khaliq said that he had evacuated his family to the city the previous day but that he had returned to his village, Tabin, because the wheat was ripe.
“What can we do,” he said. “I am very worried about my wheat harvest. If fighting is prolonged, we will lose the harvest.”
Ahmed Wali Karzai, head of the Kandahar provincial council, said thousands of families had fled the Arghandab district for the city in the last few days. The council was drawing up lists and would provide the families with assistance, he said.
Other casualties around the country indicated the rising level of Taliban attacks across the south and southeast.
Mr. Khaled, the governor of Kandahar Province, said that troops also clashed with Taliban fighters in the district of Maiwand, and that families had been displaced there as well.
The British Defense Ministry reported that four more British soldiers had been killed in another part of southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, bringing the total deaths since 2001 to 106 just days after Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that he was sending extra forces.
NATO also reported that two more soldiers of its force in Afghanistan, the International Security Assistance Force, were killed in the southeastern province of Paktika, and that 10 others were wounded while on patrol.
Taimoor Shah reported from Arghandab, and Carlotta Gall from Islamabad, Pakistan. Abdul Waheed Wafa and Sangar Rahimi contributed reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan.