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.
DISASTER: The Bangladesh Meteorological Department recorded a magnitude 5.7 and tremors reached as far as Kolkata, India, more than 300km away from the epicenter A powerful earthquake struck Bangladesh yesterday outside the crowded capital, Dhaka, killing at least five people and injuring about a hundred, the government said. The magnitude 5.5 quake struck at 10:38am near Narsingdi, Bangladesh, about 33km from Dhaka, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. The earthquake sparked fear and chaos with many in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people at home on their day off. AFP reporters in Dhaka said they saw people weeping in the streets while others appeared shocked. Bangladesh Interim Leader Muhammad Yunus expressed his “deep shock and sorrow over the news of casualties in various districts.” At least five people,
It is one of the world’s most famous unsolved codes whose answer could sell for a fortune — but two US friends say they have already found the secret hidden by Kryptos. The S-shaped copper sculpture has baffled cryptography enthusiasts since its 1990 installation on the grounds of the CIA headquarters in Virginia, with three of its four messages deciphered so far. Yet K4, the final passage, has kept codebreakers scratching their heads. Sculptor Jim Sanborn, 80, has been so overwhelmed by guesses that he started charging US$50 for each response. Sanborn in August announced he would auction the 97-character solution to K4
SHOW OF FORCE: The US has held nine multilateral drills near Guam in the past four months, which Australia said was important to deter coercion in the region Five Chinese research vessels, including ships used for space and missile tracking and underwater mapping, were active in the northwest Pacific last month, as the US stepped up military exercises, data compiled by a Guam-based group shows. Rapid militarization in the northern Pacific gets insufficient attention, the Pacific Center for Island Security said, adding that it makes island populations a potential target in any great-power conflict. “If you look at the number of US and bilateral and multilateral exercises, there is a lot of activity,” Leland Bettis, the director of the group that seeks to flag regional security risks, said in an
ON THE LAM: The Brazilian Supreme Court said that the former president tried to burn his ankle monitor off as part of an attempt to orchestrate his escape from Brazil Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro — under house arrest while he appeals a conviction for a foiled coup attempt — was taken into custody on Saturday after the Brazilian Supreme Court deemed him a high flight risk. The court said the far-right firebrand — who was sentenced to 27 years in prison over a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 elections — had attempted to disable his ankle monitor to flee. Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes said Bolsonaro’s detention was a preventive measure as final appeals play out. In a video made
RSS