KANDAHAR, June 22: Afghan and US troops backed by warplanes blasted Taliban hideouts for a second day on Wednesday, killing scores of militants in one of the bloodiest setbacks for the guerillas since their 2001 overthrow, officials said.
General Mohammad Ayoub Salangi, the police chief of Kandahar province who sent 400 troops in pursuit of militants who took over Mian Nishin district last week and executed its police chief, said 76 guerillas had been killed since Tuesday.
“Their bodies and their weapons are scattered all over Mian Nishin,” he said.
Two Afghan soldiers died and six US soldiers were wounded in the operation where Kandahar, Zabul and Uruzgan provinces meet, which was aimed at checking a surge in violence ahead of Sept 18 parliamentary elections, Afghan and US officials said.
US A-10 “Tankbuster” aircraft, British Harrier jets and US Apache attack helicopters took part in the offensive.
“This is the heaviest bombing and fighting I have seen since the fall of the Taliban,” Kandahar’s deputy police chief General Salim Khan said.
He said 30 guerrillas were captured.
Hundreds of people have died in a surge in militant violence in recent months, raising concerns about the elections, the next big step in Afghanistan’s difficult path to stability.
A US military spokesman said at least 40-50 Taliban had died in the operation aimed at destroying guerilla hideouts.
Afghan and US forces have reported killing over 100 insurgents in this southwestern region in the past week.
The US spokesman said two US Chinook helicopters were damaged by small-arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire on Tuesday. One had to make an emergency landing, but there were no casualties.
A Taliban spokesman said seven fighters had died, including a senior commander, Mullah Mohammad Easa, but none were captured.
Gen Khan said bodies of two more Taliban commanders were found.
He said guerillas fled through mountains into Zabul as jets and helicopters pounded their positions for a second day.
CLASH IN FARAH: Elsewhere on Wednesday, government forces said they killed a Taliban-linked commander, Saaduddin Yaqoubzada, and a number of his men in fighting in the western province of Farah.
Yaqoubzada had earlier said that six children, five women and four of his fighters had been killed in the clashes.
District officials said one security force member had died.
The guerillas who seized Mian Nishin, a district capital about 400 km southwest of Kabul, said they killed eight of 31 captives they held there, including its police chief, embarrassing the provincial government.
Government forces retook the town on Tuesday, but Gen Khan said the remaining 23 captives the guerillas said they had freed were missing, among them the district chief.
Afghan and US officials complain guerillas have found sanctuary in Pakistan, despite its being a US ally.—Reuters
