[NYTr] Afg: Battles Near Taliban-Held Town Intensify; US Claims 80 "insurgents" Killed

Sun Oct 28 20:14:29 EDT 2007

AP via Yahoo - Oct 28, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071028/ap_on_re_as/afghanistan

Battles near Taliban-held town intensify

By JASON STRAZIUSO
Associated Press Writer

Days after Taliban fighters overran Musa Qala a U.S. commander pledged
that Western troops would take it back. Nine months later, the town is
still Taliban territory, a symbol of the West's struggles to control
the poppy-growing south.

But a string of recent battles around Musa Qala, won overwhelmingly by
American Special Forces, signal a renewed U.S. focus on the symbolic
Taliban stronghold.

An Afghan army commander said Sunday that U.S. and Afghan forces have
taken over the area around the town and that Afghan commanders are
holding talks with Musa Qala's tribal leaders to persuade them to expel
the Arab, Chechen and Uzbek foreign fighters who roam its streets
alongside the Taliban militants.

U.S. Special Forces soldiers accompanied by Afghan troops killed about
80 fighters during a six-hour battle outside Musa Qala on Saturday, the
latest in a series of increasingly deadly engagements in Helmand
province — the world's largest poppy-growing region and the front line
of Afghanistan's bloodiest fighting this year.

There have been at least five major battles in the area since Sept. 1,
including Saturday's fighting, and Special Forces troops have killed
more than 250 militants, according to coalition statements.

"Musa Qala is part of the overall concept here, denying the Taliban the
ability to control northern Helmand," said Maj. Chris Belcher, a
spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition. "Our goal is to stop them from
accomplishing that ... We're in Musa Qala and we're going to stay
there."

The vast majority of Western forces in Helmand are British, though U.S.
Special Forces troops are also active in the province.

Taliban militants overran Musa Qala on Feb. 1, four months after
British troops left the town following a contentious peace agreement
that handed over security responsibilities to Afghan elders.

Days after the Taliban takeover a U.S. military spokesman, Col. Tom
Collins, said NATO and Afghan forces would take back the town "at a
time and place that is most advantageous."

Lt. Col. Richard Eaton, a spokesman for British troops in Helmand, said
that "nothing in Afghanistan is ever straightforward."

"You can't do everything simultaneously. That is not how a
counterinsurgency works," Eaton said. "As (the commander of NATO's
forces in Afghanistan) has said, we will deal with Musa Qala at a time
of our choosing."

Eaton also did not rule out the possibility of future peace talks in
the town, saying that the solutions to insurgencies are political.

Brig. Gen. Ghulam Muhiddin Ghori, a top Afghan army commander in
Helmand, said the foreign fighters are running training camps near Musa
Qala to teach militants how to carry out suicide and roadside bomb
attacks. But he said no big military operations are being launched to
overtake the town itself because of a fear of civilian casualties.

"Afghan and coalition forces have surrounded the Musa Qala district
center. We have started negotiations with tribal leaders there to take
over Musa Qala from the Taliban," Ghori told The Associated Press. "The
tribal leaders are also worried about these Taliban because the foreign
fighters — Arabs, Chechens, Baluchs and Uzbeks — they are in Musa Qala."

Violence in Afghanistan this year has been the deadliest since the 2001
U.S.-led invasion. More than 5,200 people have died this year due to
the insurgency, according to an Associated Press count based on figures
from Afghan and Western officials.

The latest Musa Qala battle began Saturday when Taliban insurgents
attacked a combined U.S. coalition and Afghan patrol with rockets and
gunfire, prompting the combined force to call in attack aircraft,
resulting in "almost seven dozen Taliban fighters killed," the U.S.-led
coalition said.

The coalition said four bombs were dropped on a trench line filled with
fighters, resulting in most of the deaths. It said there were no
immediate reports of civilian casualties.

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. David Rodriguez,
declined to talk about Musa Qala at a news conference in Kabul on
Sunday. Speaking on a separate topic, he said it could take between 18
months and two years for Afghan units to be able to conduct major
operations on their own.

Rodriguez said Afghan forces excel at small-unit tactics and
coordinating with the Afghan people but still need to improve their
command structure, the use of air power, their logistics support and
medical capabilities.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force, meanwhile, said an
investigation into allegations of civilian casualties in Wardak
province on Oct. 22 found that no civilians had been killed. A
provincial council member at the time said 12 civilians had been
killed, but ISAF said the investigation found that the allegations were
"without merit."

[Associated Press reporter Noor Khan in Kandahar contributed to this
report.]

                          ***

Reuters via Yahoo - Oct 28, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071028/wl_nm/afghan_violence_dc_9

U.S., Afghan forces kill 80 insurgents

By Hamid ShaliziSun Oct 28, 2:42 PM ET

U.S.-led coalition and Afghan troops killed about 80 Taliban fighters
in a six-hour battle following an ambush in southern Afghanistan, the
U.S. military said on Sunday.

Taliban fighters opened fire on Saturday with machineguns and
rocket-propelled grenades on the joint coalition and Afghan army patrol
from a trench system near Musa Qala in Helmand province, the most
important town held by insurgents.

"The combined patrol immediately returned fire, maneuvered, and
employed close air support resulting in almost seven dozen Taliban
fighters killed during a six hour engagement," the U.S. military
statement said.

Such lengthy pitched battles are relatively rare in Afghanistan, where
the Taliban prefer to "shoot and scoot" before air strikes can be
called in.

But analysts say the insurgents are expected to fight hard to defend
Musa Qala, in the north of Helmand, where they are heavily dug in after
taking control of the town in February.

A Taliban official in the town denied any insurgents had been killed
around Musa Qala and accused foreign forces of dropping bombs on
civilians.

The U.S.-led coalition and NATO-led International Security Assistance
Force (ISAF) accuse the Taliban of making false accusations of civilian
casualties and say foreign troops take every effort to avoid hurting
ordinary Afghans.

ISAF said on Sunday it had investigated an air strike in Wardak
province on Monday and concluded there was no truth in reports by a
local government official who said 11 members of an Afghan family had
been killed.

It said the target of the air strikes had been a large group of
insurgents setting an ambush for ISAF troops.

TALIBAN HANG THREE

The Taliban hanged three men in Musa Qala on Saturday, accusing them of
spying for foreign forces, another Taliban official in the town said.
Two were strung up at the entrance to the town and the other in the
town centre.

Mainly British troops are engaged in almost daily gun battles further
south in the province, an area of harsh, barren desert sliced through
by the Helmand River which provides a lush strip of fertile land where
more than half the world's opium is grown.

Foreign military forces say they can take back Musa Qala at any time,
but do not want to do so until an Afghan civilian administration and
security forces are ready to take control of the town.

In the meantime, U.S. and Afghan forces have launched a series of
reconnaissance patrols around Musa Qala.

Elsewhere, several Taliban insurgents were killed after an ambush on
U.S.-led coalition troops in neighboring Kandahar province, the U.S.
military said.

NATO-led forces are also conducting operations in Helmand and Kandahar,
but unlike the U.S.-led coalition force, do not release Taliban
casualty figures.

More than 7,000 people have been killed in renewed violence since the
Taliban re-launched their offensive against the Afghan government and
its Western backers two years ago.