thedrifter
06-05-07, 07:23 PM
Dozens of Taliban reported dead in clashes
Casualties include militants who drowned after boat hit
By Rahim Faiez - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jun 5, 2007 19:26:33 EDT
KABUL, Afghanistan — A gunbattle and airstrikes killed two dozen Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, while more than 20 suspected militants drowned when Afghan forces sank their boat as they crossed a river trying to elude an attack, officials said Tuesday.
NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, meanwhile, said one of its soldiers died in eastern Afghanistan during a clash with insurgents. The soldier’s nationality was not released, but most soldiers in the east are Americans.
In the southern battle, Taliban guerrillas attacked Afghan and U.S.-led coalition troops with rockets and guns Monday in Kandahar province’s Shah Wali Kot district, sparking a four-hour firefight, a coalition statement said. Warplanes bombed three enemy positions, it said.
The statement said “an estimated two dozen enemy fighters” were killed, but gave no further details on casualties.
In neighboring Helmand province, 20 to 30 suspected Taliban members fleeing Afghan and foreign troops drowned in the Helmand River after gunfire from security forces sank their boat as it tried to cross from Sangin to Musa Qala, said Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi of the Ministry of Defense.
“The enemy shot from the boat toward the security forces and the security forces in response shot at the boat. As a result the boat sank,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The drowning was the second in a week. On Friday, a makeshift boat carrying Taliban fighters fleeing a battle sank, killing about 60 people, Azimi said.
Elsewhere, a man claiming to be the Taliban’s new southern commander said the hard-line militia beheaded an Afghan health worker Tuesday and would kill another hostage each day until the body of his predecessor and brother, Mullah Dadullah, was handed over to relatives.
Saying he was Mansoor Dadullah, the man told The Associated Press the militants held four more health workers and 15 Afghan soldiers.
“We are giving a warning to the government to hand over the body of Dadullah,” he said by satellite phone. “Today we beheaded one of the doctors and we will behead the others as well.”
Taliban fighters kidnapped a doctor, three nurses and a driver in Kandahar province in March.
There was no way to substantiate the claimed beheading or to verify the man on the phone was Mansoor Dadullah. Shortly before the man called, Shuhabuddin Athul, a purported Taliban spokesman, called an AP reporter and said to expect a phone call from Mansoor Dadullah.
Earlier, Athul had said militants beheaded one of the health workers because the government did not hand the body over by the group’s 10 a.m. Tuesday deadline.
The Public Health Ministry said Monday that President Hamid Karzai ordered the body of Dadullah — who was killed in southern Afghanistan last month — to be traded for the five health workers.
Mansoor Dadullah claimed the body of his brother was taken from the southern city of Kandahar to the U.S. base at Bagram and flown to the United States. He offered no proof.
Staff Sgt. April Lapetoda, a spokeswoman for the U.S. military, said she had no knowledge of that taking place. The Kandahar governor said previously that Mullah Dadullah was buried in a secret location near Kandahar city.
Mansoor Dadullah also said he had received a letter from al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden congratulating him for taking over his brother’s position. “I hope that you will carry out the same kind of jihad that Mullah Dadullah did,” he quoted the letter as saying.
He said hundreds of recruits were signing up to carry out suicide attacks on U.S., NATO and Afghan troops, adding that the insurgents fighters would “pursue jihad until the occupying countries leave.”
Ellie
Casualties include militants who drowned after boat hit
By Rahim Faiez - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jun 5, 2007 19:26:33 EDT
KABUL, Afghanistan — A gunbattle and airstrikes killed two dozen Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, while more than 20 suspected militants drowned when Afghan forces sank their boat as they crossed a river trying to elude an attack, officials said Tuesday.
NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, meanwhile, said one of its soldiers died in eastern Afghanistan during a clash with insurgents. The soldier’s nationality was not released, but most soldiers in the east are Americans.
In the southern battle, Taliban guerrillas attacked Afghan and U.S.-led coalition troops with rockets and guns Monday in Kandahar province’s Shah Wali Kot district, sparking a four-hour firefight, a coalition statement said. Warplanes bombed three enemy positions, it said.
The statement said “an estimated two dozen enemy fighters” were killed, but gave no further details on casualties.
In neighboring Helmand province, 20 to 30 suspected Taliban members fleeing Afghan and foreign troops drowned in the Helmand River after gunfire from security forces sank their boat as it tried to cross from Sangin to Musa Qala, said Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi of the Ministry of Defense.
“The enemy shot from the boat toward the security forces and the security forces in response shot at the boat. As a result the boat sank,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The drowning was the second in a week. On Friday, a makeshift boat carrying Taliban fighters fleeing a battle sank, killing about 60 people, Azimi said.
Elsewhere, a man claiming to be the Taliban’s new southern commander said the hard-line militia beheaded an Afghan health worker Tuesday and would kill another hostage each day until the body of his predecessor and brother, Mullah Dadullah, was handed over to relatives.
Saying he was Mansoor Dadullah, the man told The Associated Press the militants held four more health workers and 15 Afghan soldiers.
“We are giving a warning to the government to hand over the body of Dadullah,” he said by satellite phone. “Today we beheaded one of the doctors and we will behead the others as well.”
Taliban fighters kidnapped a doctor, three nurses and a driver in Kandahar province in March.
There was no way to substantiate the claimed beheading or to verify the man on the phone was Mansoor Dadullah. Shortly before the man called, Shuhabuddin Athul, a purported Taliban spokesman, called an AP reporter and said to expect a phone call from Mansoor Dadullah.
Earlier, Athul had said militants beheaded one of the health workers because the government did not hand the body over by the group’s 10 a.m. Tuesday deadline.
The Public Health Ministry said Monday that President Hamid Karzai ordered the body of Dadullah — who was killed in southern Afghanistan last month — to be traded for the five health workers.
Mansoor Dadullah claimed the body of his brother was taken from the southern city of Kandahar to the U.S. base at Bagram and flown to the United States. He offered no proof.
Staff Sgt. April Lapetoda, a spokeswoman for the U.S. military, said she had no knowledge of that taking place. The Kandahar governor said previously that Mullah Dadullah was buried in a secret location near Kandahar city.
Mansoor Dadullah also said he had received a letter from al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden congratulating him for taking over his brother’s position. “I hope that you will carry out the same kind of jihad that Mullah Dadullah did,” he quoted the letter as saying.
He said hundreds of recruits were signing up to carry out suicide attacks on U.S., NATO and Afghan troops, adding that the insurgents fighters would “pursue jihad until the occupying countries leave.”
Ellie