Posted on 09/01/2007 6:47:50 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan police and foreign forces killed around 60 suspected Taliban fighters, many in the region where the insurgents recently released a group of South Korean church workers they had been holding, authorities said Saturday.
Meanwhile, South Korea's foreign minister defended direct negotiations with the Taliban to free the hostages amid concern the move violated international principles and could spur more abductions.
Police attacked a group of Taliban late Friday who were planning to strike security forces in the central Afghan province of Ghazni, killing 18 and arresting six others, said provincial police Gen. Ali Shah Ahmadai.
Taliban militants abducted 23 South Koreans in Ghazni district six weeks ago. They killed two male hostages, released two women last month and the final 19 were freed last week after the Taliban held unprecedented negotiations with the government in Seoul. They left Afghanistan Friday and were due in South Korea early Sunday.
South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon on Saturday emphasized that South Korean negotiators were tasked with protecting the "innocent lives of hostages." He also denied claims that South Korea paid a ransom to the Taliban, saying "there is no such thing," according to Yonhap news agency.
South Korea drew praise at home for saving the remaining hostages, but many in the country are also concerned that its international reputation may suffer because of the direct talks — considered a breach of the widely accepted international principle of not negotiating with terrorists.
Further embarrassing Seoul, the Taliban have claimed that the kidnapping of the South Koreans were "successful" and vowed to continue with similar actions.
In southern Helmand province on Friday, a combined police and U.S.-led coalition patrol came under attack with mortar, rocket-propelled grenade and small-arms fire. In the fight that ensued, "almost two dozen" insurgents were killed, the coalition said in a statement Saturday.
No Afghan or coalition soldiers, or civilians, were killed, the statement said.
The fighting took place in Musa Qala district, parts of which have been under the control of Taliban militants for several months.
U.S.-led troops and Afghan security forces also raided compounds late Friday in three villages in the remote Pitigal Valley border region, where intelligence showed that top militant leaders take refuge as they travel between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
More than 20 insurgents were killed and 11 others were detained, while officers also discovered a bomb-making factory, the U.S.-led coalition said in a statement.
It was not possible to independently verify the death tolls in the three incidents because travel in the areas is extremely dangerous. Taliban commanders were not available for comment.
The Taliban ruled most of Afghanistan from the mid-'90s up until 2001, when they were ousted by a U.S.-led coalition following the Sept. 11 attacks.
They are now leading an increasingly bloody campaign against the country's Western-backed government. More than 4,200 people — most of them insurgents — have been killed this year alone, according to an Associated Press count.
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Associated Press Writer Jae-Soon Chang in Seoul, South Korea, and APTN Senior Producer Fernando Sepe in Incheon, South Korea contributed to this report.
The Taliban continues to get clobbered. The price for siding with bin Laden, al Zawahiri, and the rest of the hockey pucks.
Money is unceasingly and desperately needed by any insurgency to continue its warfare. This is generally why innocent hostages are taken in the first place.
Leni
OK, as long as they read the suspects their Miranda warnings.
The Taliban continues to get clobbered.
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Yup. Good job by the coalition and our troops on the ground and in the air and gettin’ it done in
Afgahnistan..
btw, Just an FR Search on this title alone gets you a lot of threads with this and similar bodycount in the titles.
They just keep coming and buying into the martyr myth.
Perhaps we have finally taken off the gloves and decided to speak to the filth in the only language they understand.
We can only hope and pray this is the case.
In a sane world, the AP would write that the Taliban is being destroyed. But in the twilight zone inhabited by the AP, more dead Taliban equates to "an increasingly bloody campaign." Oh well, at least the AP isn't funding the Taliban like the South Koreans are.
GRRRREAT news! Thanks for posting.
(Musa Qala again. I recall reading about that place earlier this year. That area sure seems to be a trouble spot)
more background (a quick check) here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_Qala_District
an UPdate
Scores of Afghan insurgents killed
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070901/ap_on_re_as/afghanistan;_ylt=ApTx3dWfqeoMAVUlnPqIdNKs0NUE
RAHIM FAIEZ, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan troops backed by foreign soldiers and airpower killed about 70 suspected Taliban fighters in raids close to the Pakistan border and throughout in the country, authorities said Saturday.
Insurgent violence in Afghanistan is running at its highest level since the 2001 ouster of the Taliban despite the presence of more than 50,000 foreign troops and 110,000 Afghan police and military officers.
U.S.-led troops and Afghan security forces raided compounds late Friday in three villages in the remote Pitigal Valley border region, where intelligence has shown that top militant leaders take refuge as they travel between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the U.S.-led coalition said.
More than 20 insurgents were killed and 11 others were detained, and officers discovered a bomb-making factory, the coalition said in a statement.
Afghan authorities have accused Pakistan in the past of not doing enough to prevent the movement of militants across the border to attack Afghan and foreign troops in the country. Pakistan says it has deployed tens of thousands of the troops along the volatile frontier to stem the flow of militants.
In the central province of Ghazni, where insurgents recently released a group of South Korean church workers they had been holding, Afghan police attacked a group of Taliban planning to strike security forces, killing 18 and arresting six others, said provincial police Gen. Ali Shah Ahmadai. A coalition statement said the operation was meant to target “a militant responsible for facilitating the movement of foreign fighters,” but did not say if the militant was among those killed.
The statement also said the raid resulted in the seizure of mortar and artillery rounds, numerous hand grenades, rocket-propelled grenades and other ammunition.
Taliban militants abducted 23 South Koreans in Ghazni six weeks ago. They killed two male hostages, released two women last month and freed the final 19 last week after holding unprecedented negotiations with the Korean government.
In the Musa Qala district in southern Helmand province, a combined police and coalition patrol came under attack on Friday from mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire, the coalition said in a statement. In the fight that ensued, almost two dozen insurgents were killed.
No Afghan or coalition soldiers, or civilians, were killed, the statement said.
Also in Musa Qala, Afghan forces Saturday called in coalition airstrikes after coming under attack, the coalition said. Seven insurgents were killed, the statement said.
It was not possible to independently verify any of the death tolls because travel to the areas is extremely dangerous. Taliban commanders were not available for comment.
Parts of Musa Qala have been under the control of Taliban militants for months. The region has seen several weeks of bloody combat.
The Taliban ruled most of Afghanistan from the mid-1990s until 2001, imposing an extreme version of Islam and harboring al-Qaida leaders and thousands of other Muslim militants from around the world.
They were ousted by a U.S.-led coalition following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, but are now leading an increasingly bloody campaign against the country’s Western-backed government.
More than 4,200 people — most of them insurgents — have been killed so far this year, according to an Associated Press count.
... and officers discovered a bomb-making factory, the coalition said in a statement.
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Some good hunting results in Afghanistan this week-end.
We’ve really smashed the Taliban this year, killing around 4,000 so far this year. It’s becoming like target practice there.
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