March 29, 2007	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 9, 1428

KABUL, March 28: A six-day Afghan military operation in the southern province of Helmand left 122 militants and 12 police dead, the defence ministry said on Wednesday. The action was launched the day after the March 21 Afghan New Year's Day and wrapped up on Tuesday, defence ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi said.

It cut an important Taliban supply route and destroyed militant strongholds, he said.

The operation, called Norozi (New Year), was the first of its kind to be conducted by the fledgling Afghan forces with Nato air support but not ground troops.

Another 27 militants and 20 police were wounded in the sweep, Azimi said.

“The importance for the operation is that it was the first independent operation by Afghan forces,” he said.

“We cut the enemy supplying route from south to the north of Helmand. We also destroyed strongholds they had built about seven kilometres from Lashkar Gah.”

The small town of Lashkar Gah is the capital of Helmand, where military officials admit various areas are in the control of Taliban allied with drugs traffickers.

Helmand, where most of a British deployment of over 5,000 troops is based under Nato’s International Security Assistance Force, has seen some of the fiercest fighting this year.—AFP