Troops seize Taliban retreat after 9 days ( 2003-09-04 10:00) (Agencies)
Afghan officials claimed victory Wednesday after a
9-day siege by U.S and Afghan troops against suspected Taliban fighters holed up
in a region of mountains and caves of southern Afghanistan.
Afghan doctor Nazar Mohammad, center, 32,
vaccinates Ayoub, left,4, against polio while doctor Nahida, 20,
looks on in a street in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sept 3, 2003.
UNICEF started on Tuesday a three day program to immunize six million
children against polio in Afghanistan. At the window it reads
'Representative of Propeties Dealing Shop.'
[AP]
Scores of Taliban guerrillas were killed and others retreated in Zabul
province, local officials said.
In a sign that major fighting is over, about 600 Afghan troops have pulled
out of Dai Chupan, a remote district of Zabul province, said Khalil Hotak, the
province's intelligence chief. That area has been the scene of the heaviest
fighting since the Taliban's fall from power in late 2001.
Afghan troops found bodies along gorges, in caves and scattered across the
front lines, Hotak told The Associated Press from a command center in Qalat.
Troops found the bodies of at least 124 rebels since the joint offensive by
Afghan government and U.S.-led forces began early last week, Hotak said, while
most of the other Taliban fighters were believed to have slipped away. Five
Afghan government troops were killed in the fighting, he said.
It was impossible to independently verify Hotak's account. U.S. officials
have put the confirmed death toll among the insurgents at just 37, but have not
updated that figure for two days.
"The siege has ended. We had thought there were Taliban fighters left but
they have left the area," Hotak said. "We defeated the Taliban in Dai Chupan."
Earlier, Hotak told the AP that 80 percent of Zabul province was loyal to the
Taliban. Deeply conservative and religious rural residents have been told by the
Taliban that the U.S. troops are infidels fighting Islam and most people believe
this, giving the guerrillas the ability to move freely.
The hostilities, triggered by a wave of Taliban attacks on Afghan officials,
police and aid workers in the south and east of the country, have underscored
the security problems faced by the administration of President Hamid Karzai that
took power soon after the Taliban's ouster by U.S.-led forces in 2001.
While Kabul-based diplomats and Afghan officials say there is little threat
to the government, the capacity of the Taliban to mass hundreds of fighters in
one place has shown how precarious its control is over parts of the country.
Afghan officials have said the Taliban used the mountainous district as a
base for attacks.
After offering stiff resistance to coalition forces despite repeated bombing
of their positions in the past week, Hotak said the Taliban had escaped from Dai
Chupan to neighboring provinces in small groups.
The latest fighting involved U.S. special operations forces and soldiers from
the 10th Mountain Division, with close air support. They are among the 11,500
forces of the U.S.-led coalition posted in Afghanistan to hunt down Taliban and
remnants of the al-Qaida terror group.
Earlier Wednesday, U.S. and Afghan troops stormed a cave in Dai Chupan where
several insurgents were believed to be holding out, as U.S. jets continued their
assault from the air, Afghan and U.S. officials said.
The raid did not net any major Taliban commanders, and most of the rebels had
slipped away by the time the troops moved in, Hotak said.
Some 100 Afghan soldiers and an unknown number of U.S. troops remained in the
area in case of renewed Taliban attacks, Hotak said.
The U.S. military gave no immediate sign that "Operation Mountain Viper" in
Dai Chupan had ended.
Spokesman Col. Rodney Davis said Wednesday that allied troops had come under
fire, but there were no reported casualties. The military also said that five
rockets were fired Tuesday at its base in Gardez, in eastern Afghanistan near
the border with Pakistan, but there was no damage or injuries.
American fighter jets and attack helicopters bombed several suspected Taliban
positions in the Larzab and Sairo Ghar mountains in Dai Chupan, said Haji
Saifullah Khan, the main Afghan commander in the area.
Khan said one rebel fighter who had lost a hand in earlier combat was
captured and turned over to American forces. He said the Taliban had used the
rough terrain as a shield to make their escape.
