Posted on 06/25/2005 8:51:09 AM PDT by Jackknife
KABUL (Reuters) - A total of 178 Taliban fighters were killed and 56 captured in three days of fighting in south Afghanistan, one of the group's bloodiest setbacks since their 2001 overthrow, the Defense Ministry said on Saturday.
But senior Taliban commanders thought to have been in the area of the U.S.-backed operation, in the region where the provinces of Kandahar, Uruzgan and Zabul meet, escaped, ministry spokesman Mohammad Ishaq Paiman said.
"From the start of this joint operation, on June 21, until last night, 178 Taliban were killed and 56 arrested," he said.
The Interior Ministry, which on Friday gave a toll of 109 guerrillas dead, said most were killed by U.S. air strikes.
The U.S. military on Wednesday gave an estimate of 40-50 guerrillas dead, but has not provided any fresh estimates.
The Defense Ministry said on Thursday that Mullah Dadullah and Mullah Brother, members of the Taliban leadership council led by the elusive Mullah Mohammad Omar, were surrounded in the operation, but Paiman said they had apparently escaped.
"If they had been killed, we would have found their dead bodies; if they had been arrested, we would recognize them," he said. "It means they have escaped."
U.S. and Afghan forces have reported killing more than 200 insurgents in the past week alone and more than 300 since March in their drive to protect Sept. 18 parliamentary elections.
While the latest losses will have been a blow to the Taliban, the insurgency has grown stronger since the end of the winter and analysts say it has drawn hundreds of new recruits from Pakistan and elsewhere.
U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban government after it refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, but 3-1/2 years on, they have been unable to subdue the insurgency or catch bin Laden.
A month-long voter registration period began on Saturday, but U.N. Special Representative to Afghanistan Jean Arnault, briefing the U.N. Security Council on Friday, said worsening security made it necessary to attack the insurgents' financing, safe havens and support networks as well as use military force.
Analysts say the key to success of the polls will be Pakistan, the Taliban's main backer before joining the U.S. led war on terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
Afghan and U.S. officials have accused Pakistan of failing to act against guerrilla safe havens and the Taliban have claimed responsibility for several recent attacks on poll workers and candidates.
Donald Pleasance as Mullah Omar?
It DOES happen just a little TOO often don't it...
Very suspicious..
AFGHANISTAN: Taliban Camp Wiped Out
June 24, 2005: The battle in southern Afghanistan has led to a major defeat for the Taliban, with over a hundred enemy dead and several dozen captured. American AC-130 gunships, AH-64 Apache helicopter gunships, A-10 and Harrier ground attack jets, combined with rapidly responding police and soldiers, trapped a large Taliban force in the open, or in caves from which there was no escape. The Taliban had a local government official working for them, and his disappearance was first thought to be a kidnapping. But it turns out that the traitorous official helped set up an ambush of local police. The two Taliban leaders who had organized that particular operation were believed among the dead, which are still being recovered.
June 23, 2005: In several days of fighting, American warplanes, and Afghan troops, chased several dozen Taliban from a town in southern Afghanistan, found their camp and attacked it. Some 76 Taliban were killed, and another 30 were captured, including several leaders. A dozen police and soldiers were killed, and a few Americans wounded. About 400 Afghan police and troops were involved, plus a few dozen American troops. American bombers and attack helicopters did most of the damage at the Taliban camp the Taliban were trying to reach. There are believed to be several hundred Taliban gunmen in the hills outside Kandahar, and the police and aircraft continue to search for them. The Taliban tactics have resulted in some successful attacks on towns, but the police quick reaction tactics have caused considerable casualties on the enemy. In the last three months, nearly 400 Taliban fighters have been killed, as groups of them roamed around southern Afghanistan, attacking government offices, the police and army bases. Many of these Taliban fighters come from Pushtun tribes in Pakistan, which still support the Taliban. Many of the Afghan Taliban have made peace with the government. At the same time, 29 American and 39 Afghan troops (and police) have died, along with 125 civilians.
Over six million Afghans fled the country during the Russian occupation in the 1980s. Around 3.5 million refugees have returned back in the last three years. In the last year, more than 700,000 have returned. Only about two million Afghans remain in exile, about 55 percent of them in Iran, the rest in Pakistan.
June 22, 2005: An American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, after flying a mission over Afghanistan, crashed while attempting to land at its base in the United Arab Emirates. The pilot was killed. U-2s regularly fly over Afghanistan, using its sensors to search for terrorists and Taliban operations.
June 21, 2005: In the last three months, fighting with Taliban raiders in the south has left 260 rebels, and 29 American troops, dead. Bands of Taliban gunmen, riding in pickup trucks and SUVs, drive around country roads, shooting at troops and police, or trying to raid government offices. Some of these groups just drive around for a few days, not really making much of an impression, and then go back to their bases in Pakistan. But those that make contact, are soon being pursued by helicopter gunships, UAVs and bombers.
Your suspicions and mine could be answered in part by this .....
June 24, 2005: The battle in southern Afghanistan has led to a major defeat for the Taliban, with over a hundred enemy dead and several dozen captured. American AC-130 gunships, AH-64 Apache helicopter gunships, A-10 and Harrier ground attack jets, combined with rapidly responding police and soldiers, trapped a large Taliban force in the open, or in caves from which there was no escape. The Taliban had a local government official working for them, and his disappearance was first thought to be a kidnapping. But it turns out that the traitorous official helped set up an ambush of local police. The two Taliban leaders who had organized that particular operation were believed among the dead, which are still being recovered.
Good theory.
I concur. As long as our guys have their eyes on them, and take them out before they can do more damage.
That is good news. But I thought they were "insurgents" and "Freedom Fighters".
What a nutball Pelosi is. She's arguing that the detainees should be released because the war in Afghanistan is "over". Does it occur to her that the detainees could go back to fighting us anywhere in the World.
The English arrested several hundred men after the 1916 uprising in Ireland. They later let them out of the detention camps - and they promptly went back to the IRA.
Exactly. If you catch a poisonous snake in your yard, keep it for a few days in a box, then release it........
......Where does it go?
From another source:
The brother-in-law of fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar is one of the key figures under siege in a mountain hideout.
This is a key operation to try and shut down the continuing Pushtun support for the Taliban.
Is this an inside source, or do you have a story link?
I monitor several Pakistani newspapers and one of them quoted an afghani military source on this and it didn't make it mainstream so I threw it in. I am waiting on an after action report to confirm, but this was a major op with inside intel.
Very cool. Please update me when you know something.
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