More than 50 Taliban fighters who fled a southern Afghan town were killed during a two-day battle as the militants tried to attack a nearby government center, Afghanistan's defense ministry said yesterday.
The battle -- fought by Afghan soldiers aided by NATO airstrikes -- took place in Sangin, Helmand province. Sangin neighbors Musa Qala, which Taliban fighters had controlled since February but abandoned this week in the face of an offensive by Afghan, British and US forces.
"When the terrorists were defeated in Musa Qala, they escaped to Sangin and started firing in and around Sangin," the defense ministry said.
Among the 50 militants killed were three foreigners and three commanders, the ministry said. It said no civilians were hurt or killed in the operation.
There was no way to independently verify the death toll on the remote battle site and NATO's International Security Assistance Force does not release casualty figures for militants.
Taliban militants overran Musa Qala in February, four months after British troops left the town following a contentious peace agreement that gave security responsibilities to Afghan elders, a deal criticized by US officials as surrendering to the Taliban.
Afghan, British and US forces moved into Musa Qala's center on Tuesday, and Afghan and British officials have vowed to station troops there and prevent it from falling into Taliban hands again. More than two dozen militants were killed during the battle for Musa Qala, as was one British soldier.
Northern Helmand is the world's largest opium poppy growing region and has seen the heaviest fighting in Afghanistan this year.
Helmand's governor, Asadullah Wafa, said he and a delegation of officials from the Afghan capital, Kabul, would travel to Musa Qala today to hand out 5,000 tonnes of aid, including wheat and blankets, to families who fled the fighting and are now starting to return.
"After 11 months the Afghan flag is again flying over the Musa Qala district center," Wafa said.
All of the tribal leaders in Musa Qala now support the government, Wafa said, adding that Afghan police and army soldiers would have a strong presence there.
Though the militants were pushed out of Musa Qala -- an important symbolic victory for Afghan and NATO troops -- Taliban fighters still control three remote districts in northern Helmand -- Washer, Naw Zad and Bagrhan, said Afghan defense ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi. The Afghan-NATO force will continue operations in those areas, he said.
This year has been the deadliest since the US-led invasion in 2001. More than 6,200 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence, according to an Associated Press tally of figures from Western and Afghan officials.
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
RSS