Text 13728, 75 rader
Skriven 2005-06-25 19:59:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: Afghanistan
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The liberal press will make nothing of this success...

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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,160681,00.html

More Afghan Rebels Found Dead
Saturday, June 25, 2005

MIANA SHIEN, Afghanistan  Afghan forces scouring mountains in the country's
south found the bodies of 76 suspected militants killed during a blistering
barrage of their camps by Afghan and U.S. forces, the Defense Ministry said
Saturday.

Meanwhile, Afghan government and U.S. military leaders met with tribal chiefs
in a tent on a dusty plateau near the battlefield and urged them to help fight
militants still holding out.

In all, a total of 178 militants have been killed and 56 suspected insurgents
have been captured since Tuesday in some of the deadliest fighting since the
fall of the Taliban (search) four years ago, ministry spokesman Zahir Marad
(search) said.

"Our forces have collected the bodies of 76 more rebels from the battlefield,"
Marad said, adding that the corpses were scattered across a wide mountainous
area in and around the Miana Shien district of Kandahar province.

The U.S. military's toll of insurgents killed was 56, but American spokesman
Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara said this did not make the government's figure
necessarily wrong because Afghan forces had taken the lead in the operation and
U.S.-led coalition troops were finding it hard to keep a tally of the dead.


O'Hara said there had been no major fighting in the region since Thursday.

But Gen. Salim Khan, a police commander on the battlefield, said his forces
have maintained their pursuit of rebels fleeing on horseback and motorcycle.

Government and U.S. military leaders, meanwhile, met in Miana Shien on Saturday
with about 35 tribal chiefs to urge them to help battle the Taliban.

Dozens of Afghan and American troops guarded the meeting, which was attended by
the governors of Zabul and Kandahar provinces, a U.S. military commander and
other top officials.

Ali Khail, a spokesman for the Zabul governor (search), said the officials
urged the tribal leaders to cooperate in "fighting off the Taliban."

The government is trying to find out why the Taliban is so active in the
region, Khail told The Associated Press.

O'Hara said the "long-term goal (of the meeting) is to determine how we can
prevent the Taliban from having any influence in this area."

About 80 Taliban fighters were believed to be still in the mountains holding
out against Afghan and coalition forces.

Marad said two Taliban commanders, Mullah Dadullah (search) and Mullah Brader
(search), are believed to be surrounded in the mountainous region. Both are
well-known names in the hard-line movement, accused of orchestrating attacks
across much of Afghanistan's violence-ridden south.

Purported Taliban spokesman Mullah Latif Hakimi on Friday denied that either
man was surrounded, and said the government's death toll was exaggerated.

Hakimi often calls news organizations to claim responsibility for attacks on
behalf of the Taliban. His information has sometimes proven untrue or
exaggerated and his exact tie to the group's leadership is unclear.

About 465 suspected insurgents have been reported killed since March, after
snows melted on mountain trails used by the rebels. In the same period, 29 U.S.
troops, 38 Afghan police and soldiers and 125 civilians have been killed.

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