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Afghan push sees 20 militants dead

A coalition Chinook helicopter lands in front of a International Security Assistance Force truck at Kabul airport on Saturday. 14 British military lost their lives when their MR2 spy plane crashed in southern Kandahar Province. PHOTO: EPA

More than 20 militants have been killed in a major offensive against Taliban fighters in southern Af-ghanistan -- Operation Medusa -- which was launched on Saturday in southern Kandahar Province with 2,000 Afghan and NATO soldiers and support staff, a NATO force spokesman said.

14 British soldiers were also killed on Saturday in a plane crash while carrying out intelligence surveillance for the operation.

Medusa is the biggest military operation in the south since NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) took over the area from a US-led coalition on July 31.

Its aim is to drive out Taliban fighters entrenched in the Panjwayi area, about 35km west of Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city.

The Taliban took up arms in the area in the early 1990s to sweep to power in 1996, before being ousted five years later for sheltering al-Qaeda leaders blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks in the US.

"We think we are getting good results," ISAF spokesman Major Quentin Innes told reporters yesterday. "The Taliban are taking substantial casualties but we can't put a number on that yet."

Later in the day, however, Major Luke Knittig told reporters that there had been "more than 20 insurgents killed."

A British reconnaissance plane that crashed hours after take-off had been trying to ensure civilian casualties were avoided in the operation, Innes said.

The crash caused the biggest single loss of British troops in Afghanistan or Iraq since the US-led "war on terror" was launched in November 2001. Twelve Royal Air Force personnel, a Royal Marine and an Army soldier were killed.

ISAF said the crash was caused by technical failure and the plane had not been shot down as claimed by Taliban rebels.

"We were doing a very detailed survey of the target and that aircraft was part of assets to do that survey and to ensure non-combatants were not injured in the operation," he said.

Coalition and ISAF forces have come under heavy criticism for killing civilians in their operation in Afghanistan. Human rights officials said nearly 40 were killed in a coalition operation in Panjwayi in May.

Days ahead of the launch of the operation, ISAF and Afghan officials had urged residents through the media and meetings with area elders to leave the area so they would not be caught up in the violence.

ISAF was still cleaning up the crash site yesterday, Innes said. The remains of the soldiers would be transported to the Kandahar Air Field before being repatriated to Britain.

British forces form the bulk of an ISAF deployment of about 10,000 troops in southern Afghanistan, with the other major contingents coming from Canada and the Netherlands.

The troops have suffered a barrage of attacks, with more than 80 foreign soldiers killed in hostile action in Afghanistan in a surge in Taliban violence this year.

Panjwayi has in particular seen fierce fighting this year.

Observation showed that seasoned Taliban fighters in the area were "hardening their defence positions and sandbagging buildings and bringing in ammunition," an ISAF spokesman said on Saturday.

"We have had indications that these Taliban fighters are of the hardcore variety as opposed to the soldiers-for-a-day we see sometimes," Major Scott Lundy said.

"The goal is to remove the Taliban threat from Panjwayi," he said.

ISAF commander Lieutenant General David Richards said in an interview published at the weekend that the force had set itself a six-month deadline to establish a clear advantage over Taliban insurgents.
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