August 3, 2003	Sunday	Jumadi-us-Sani 4, 1424

KANDAHAR, Aug 2: Some 500 Afghan troops, backed by US-led forces and helicopters, killed four militants in the mountains of southern Afghanistan on Saturday and were hunting up to 100 more suspected Taliban, a local official said.

The operation was launched after suspected Taliban on Tuesday killed two Afghan soldiers and torched two vehicles belonging to a non-governmental organization north of Kandahar city, said Khalid Pashtun, a spokesman for Kandahar governor Gul Agha.

“We sent 500 Afghan soldiers and then the conflict started, and is still going on,” he said.

“In this recent operation we have killed four Taliban and arrested six of them,” he said, adding there had been no government or coalition casualties so far.

The operation started on Friday in the Tora Ghar district, east of Sha Wali Khot, which is 10 kilometres north of Kandahar.

A “limited number” of US-led ground forces and helicopters were supporting the operation, Khalid Pashtun said.

“In the Tora Ghar area some Taliban are under siege and it’s difficult for them to escape,” he said, estimating around 100 militants were in the area.

The six arrested men were being held at Kandahar police headquarters.

Sha Wali Khot was formerly home to some Taliban officials and fighters of the militia continue to launch attacks in the area.

President Hamid Karzai said he was not concerned by the recent wave of attacks by Taliban fighters and reports that the militants were regrouping.

“I don’t think this is a serious concern, I am not worried about that. The Taliban have no place in the Afghan people, that I know for a fact,” Mr Karzai said on Saturday in an interview with the BBC.

“What is important for us in this region, especially for Afghanistan and Pakistan, is to fight terrorism together, and to fight it in earnest, to fight it in truth and to finish this menace,” he said.

Up to four Taliban or Al Qaeda fighters were killed during a separate clash north of Kandahar on Thursday after they were fired on by US helicopter gunships.

In another incident on Thursday US Special Forces came under attack from three men in the province’s Spin Boldak border area.

Also on Thursday, Afghan police killed one suspected Taliban fighter and arrested five others when a group of militants attacked a village police post in Kandahar.

The commander of the peacekeeping International Security Assistance Force, German Lt Gen Norbert van Heyst, last month said attacks across Afghanistan doubled between April and May and were still running high. —AFP