|
Taliban Escape Madrassa Siege
Several dozen Taliban fighters escaped a siege by government troops of a religious school in violence-torn eastern Afghanistan overnight with the help of locals, the provincial police chief said on Friday. Damm "The local population provided them passage and they managed to flee on Thursday evening," General Daulat Khan, chief of police in Paktika province, told AFP in the provincial capital Sharan. The heavily-armed fighters had taken shelter in the madrassa (religious school) late on Wednesday after attacking government buildings in the district of Wazakhwa, 60 kilometres (37 miles) from the Pakistani border. Khan said up to five Taliban commanders had already fled on motorbikes before the siege of the madrassa in the nearby village of Karmadin. Took off and left the cannon fodder behind. During the siege, local elders clutching copies of the Muslim holy book, the Koran, had urged the troops not to assault the madrassa, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported on Thursday. Government troops in Urgun, 120 kilometers (75 miles) northeast of Wazakhwa, were seen seeking instructions from the authorities in Kabul over how to handle the siege. "HQ, this is Rover. WTF? Over." "Rover, HQ. Let em go, weâll catch up to them later." Paktika, bordering Pakistan, is one of the main battlegrounds in an apparent resurgence by the Taliban and their supporters among the ethnic Pashtun majority, who dominate Afghanistanâs southern and eastern provinces. Posted by: Steve 2003-09-19 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=18884 |