UK troops leave Afghan area after deal: 44 Taliban killed
KABUL, Oct 17: British troops pulled out of a troubled southern Afghanistan district on Tuesday after reaching an agreement with tribal elders, while fighting killed 44 suspected Taliban militants across the country, officials said.
Meanwhile, Nato announced it was launching a new countrywide military operation with Afghan forces to maintain pressure on the Taliban over the fall and winter, and to pave the way for long-promised development after the harshest fighting in five years.
Mark Laity, a Nato spokesman in Kabul, said the decision to withdraw the British troops from Helmand province’s Musa Qila district followed an agreement with tribal elders and the provincial governor, and was supported by President Hamid Karzai.
“There has not been any contact with the Taliban, and they are not involved in this,” Mr Laity said.
He said the troops were leaving because it had been 35 days since the last major clash. They would leave Afghan security forces in charge.
The British defense ministry said the pullout did not represent a setback, and that British forces would retain a presence in nearby districts. And British Gen David Richards, the commander of the 32,000 strong Nato-led force in Afghanistan, said the redeployment reflected success in its operation, although he left open the possibility they could return.
“We will continue to go back into Musa Qila if the security situation demands it,” he said.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, heavy fighting continued on Tuesday.
A US-led coalition air strike killed a suspected midlevel Taliban commander and about 15 other militants in southern Uruzgan province. Three 500-pound bombs were dropped on a compound in the Khod Valley in support of a Nato-led operation targeting a group of militants who had previously ambushed Nato and Afghan troops, an alliance statement said.
Nato did not name the suspected Taliban commander.
Afghan army forces battled insurgents near the eastern border with Pakistan for nearly five hours, in a clash that left 24 suspected militants and one soldier dead, said Gen Mohammed Zair Azimi, the defense ministry spokesman.
The two sides fought with assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns in Barmal district of eastern Paktika province, Mr Azimi said. He said Afghan soldiers recovered the bodies of those killed and their weapons.
It was not immediately possible to independently confirm the death toll.
In Helmand’s Garmser district, police killed four suspected Taliban and arrested six others, said Ghulam Muhiddin, the provincial governor’s spokesman. One policeman was wounded.
In neighboring Kandahar province, suspected Taliban destroyed an oil tanker transporting fuel for Nato-led forces and killed its driver, said a border police official.
Meanwhile, Nato commander Richards announced in Kabul the launch of Operation Eagle, but gave few details including how many Nato and Afghan forces would be involved and what areas it would focus on.
“The underlying purpose of this integrated security operation is to allow and encourage much needed reconstruction and development to take place across Afghanistan,” Gen Richards said.
RELEASE OFFERED: The kidnappers of an Italian photojournalist in Afghanistan offered on Tuesday to release him in exchange for the return of an Afghan Christian convert living in Italy, an Italian online newspaper reported.
The PeaceReporter website said the kidnappers had made the demand through Italian NGO Emergency by telephoning a security worker at a hospital run by it in Lashkar Gah, southern Afghanistan.—-Agencies
