August 13, 2008	Wednesday	Sha’aban 10, 1429

KABUL, Aug 12: Afghan forces are back in control of a remote district that the Taliban captured three weeks ago, local officials said on Tuesday.

Afghan and international forces had on Sunday night moved into Ajristan district centre, about 200km southwest of Kabul, a provincial government spokesman said.

The white flag of the Taliban had been removed and replaced with the Afghan flag after the militants fled without resistance, Ghazni government spokesman Ismail Jahangir told AFP.

“The district was completely brought under control and dropped the Taliban flag and reinstalled the government’s flag,” he said, adding it had been in Taliban control for “several weeks.”

Dozens of Taliban had stormed into Ajristan on July 25 and established control.

Days later a military operation including air strikes by the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) killed about 55 of the militants.

The Taliban were in government between 1996 and 2001, when they were ousted in a US-led invasion, and regularly try to capture district centres in their insurgency against the government of President Hamid Karzai.—AFP