June 20, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 15, 1429

ARGHANDAB (Afghanistan), June 19: Nato and Afghan forces using air power cleared Taliban militants from villages near the strategic city of Kandahar on Thursday, killing at least 56 militants, officials said.

Troops were now making a final search of houses in Arghandab district, a day after around 1,000 soldiers launched a huge offensive against the militants, said the defence ministry and the Nato-led International Security Assistance force.

A Nato spokesman said the “highly successful” operation involving air strikes would help allay concerns about the force’s capabilities after hundreds of militants escaped from Kandahar’s main jail at the weekend.

Taliban spokesmen had said some of the fugitives from the prison were among those who took up defensive positions in Arghandab’s dense pomegranate groves and vineyards from Monday evening.

“Arghandab district is totally cleared of the enemy presence,” defence ministry spokesman Gen Mohammad Zahir Azimi said at a joint press conference in Kabul with Nato officials.

Fifty-six “enemies” were killed, mostly foreigners, while a number of others were wounded, Azimi added. A civilian and two Afghan troops also died, he said.

Kandahar provincial governor Asadullah Khaled said earlier that hundreds of Taliban were killed or wounded during the offensive and also confirmed that the district had been cleared.

Nato civilian spokesman Mark Laity said the operation, which was led by Afghan forces and involved Canadian troops, was an effective response to Friday’s jailbreak in Kandahar. “Nobody is complacent, but so far it has been highly successful,” Laity told reporters.

“After the recent incident, the jailbreak, there was concern about our capabilities. This was a fast and very effective response, I think something that all Afghans can take great heart from.”

The joint forces were now “in the closing stage of the operation”, codenamed Turn Around, Isaf military spokesman Gen Carlos Branco told the same news conference.

He accused the Taliban of exaggerating their numbers in the district, adding: “The insurgents were there, but they do not have the numbers they claimed.”

The Taliban’s build-up in Arghandab posed a fresh challenge to President Hamid Karzai as he sought to tackle the bloodiest phase of a campaign launched in 2001.—AFP