September 19, 2003	Friday	Rajab 21, 1424

URGUN, Sept 18: Dozens of suspected Taliban were besieged in a madressah by Afghan troops on Thursday in an eastern border region at the centre of an apparent resurgence by the militia.

The heavily armed fighters had staged attacks on Wednesday on government buildings in Paktika province’s Wazakhwa district, 60kms from the Pakistani border, a local military commander said.

Afghan troops fought the attackers off and they took refuge in a local madressah in the nearby village of Karmadin, the commander said.

Local elders have been pleading with the soldiers not to attack the madressah, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said.

Wazakhwa is 120kms south of Urgun, where government troops were seen and heard contacting authorities in Kabul for directions on how to handle the siege.

Paktika, bordering Pakistan, is one of the main battlegrounds of a resurgence by Taliban fighters and their supporters in the militia’s former strongholds in southeastern Afghanistan.

Aid agencies warned this week that a spate of armed attacks had made reconstruction of the war-shattered nation almost impossible.

International relief agency CARE said attacks on aid workers had spiralled over the past year from an average of one a month to one every two days.—AFP