Afghan fighting escalates after clash with Taliban

FIGHTING intensified in Afghanistan over the weekend after security forces surrounded Taliban fighters hiding in a village, launching a gun battle that killed at least three militants and a police officer.

Elsewhere in the region, Taliban militants attacked an Afghan construction company working for coalition forces, killing a security guard. On Saturday, a roadside bomb killed four Canadian soldiers in same area.

The blast came as Afghan President Hamid Karzai said “foreigners” are fomenting his country’s insurgency. He didn’t name any countries or groups.

Canadian officers said the bomb destroyed one of four armoured vehicles in a convoy and killed its four occupants in Gomboth, a village about 40 kilometres north of Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold.

The latest fighting came as visiting British Defence Secretary John Reid said coalition troops must maintain their offensive against Taliban and al-Qaida militants to prevent their return to power.

“The greatest danger of all for the people of Afghanistan and the people of the United Kingdom would be if Afghanistan ever again came under the rule of a Taliban regime prepared to protect al-Qaida or terrorist groups,” Mr Reid told reporters in Kabul.

Afghan police and soldiers fought Taliban militants in the volatile Gelan district of southern Ghazni province about 120km south-west of Kabul, said provincial Governor Haji Sher Alam. Three Taliban fighters and a policeman were killed.

On Saturday, US and Afghan soldiers arrested 16 Taliban members in raids in the southern Zabul province, army commander General Rahmattalluh Roufi said yesterday.

“The Americans are questioning them now to see if they are important Taliban members or not,” he said.

Militants have stepped up attacks against coalition and Afghan forces in a bid to derail reconstruction efforts four years after a US-led military force toppled the Taliban regime for harbouring Osama bin Laden.