Children and Taliban fighters killed in NATO operation

A Nato and Afghan operation to retake a Taliban-controlled town in southern Afghanistan has killed at least 12 Taliban fighters and two children, the Afghan Defence Ministry said today.

In other violence in southern Afghanistan, a Nato soldier was killed and another wounded in an explosion today, Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.

ISAF did not give any further details about the nationalities of the casualties or the exact location of the incident.

Taliban militants overran Musa Qala in February, four months after British troops left the town following a contentious peace agreement that gave security responsibilities to Afghan elders. Taliban fighters have been in control of the town ever since.

A string of battles around Musa Qala in recent months have signalled a renewed focus by US forces to take on the Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan’s poppy-growing south.

Today’s violence is the latest in a series of deadly engagements in Helmand province – the world’s largest poppy-growing region and the frontline of Afghanistan’s bloodiest fighting this year.

Defence Ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi said elders in the area had asked the Taliban to leave, but when they refused, the elders sought help from government troops.

Twelve Taliban have been killed in fighting since the operation began yesterday afternoon. Separately, two children were killed when security forces clashed with Taliban travelling in a convoy with civilians, Azimi said.

“The enemy always tries to use human shields... and our demand from them is that they stop putting civilian lives in danger,” said Azimi.

Next to Musa Qala, in Sangin district, Taliban militants hanged a 12-year-old boy in an orchard, allegedly because the boy gave information to the Afghan government and international forces, said the provincial police chief, Mohammad Hussein Andiwal.