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US jets pound Taliban targets
US warplanes have launched heavy air strikes in support of hundreds of Afghan militiamen battling Taliban fighters in the southwest of the country, Afghan and US officials said yesterday. The US military in Afghanistan said US planes and helicopters had dropped a total of 16 tonnes of bombs on Taliban positions in the Tor Ghar mountain area of Kandahar province, northeast of the town of Spin Boldak. The strikes from A-10, Harrier and B-1 aircraft as well as AC-130 gunships and Apache helicopters came after about 40 suspected Taliban fighters opened fire on a 12-strong US special forces detachment observing an Afghan militia operation on Wednesday, military spokesman Colonel Roger King said.Khalid Pashtun, a spokesman for the Kandahar governor, said the fighting involved 600 government soldiers and several fighters had been killed on both sides. Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said the fighting followed a pick-up in Taliban activity with the onset of spring, which could also be linked to the war in Iraq. Maulvi Abdullah Jan, an aide to Taliban commander Hafiz Abdur Rahim, said his men had inflicted heavy losses. Taliban and Al Qaeda remnants are not capable of destabilising the Afghan government, Jalali said while admitting there had been an increase in attacks on government and foreign targets. Lest we forget... Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-04-03 |
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